The President's Cake
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“God will provide”
Overview
Hasan Hadi's first feature, The President's Cake is a window into the Iraqi writer/director's own childhood under the conflicting forces of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship and harsh UN sanctions. In 1990s Iraq, nine year old Lamia (Baneen Ahmed Nayyef) lives in the ancient Mesopotamian Marshes with her grandmother Bibi (Waheed Thabet Khreibat). When she's selected by school lottery to make a cake commemorating Hussein's birthday, the young girl must use all her resources to gather rare and costly ingredients like eggs and sugar, or face the consequences for failure.
Caméra d'Or (Best First Feature) and the Audience Award
“As perceptive as it is kinetic”
“A striking, mature debut”
“A striking sense of street-level realism, political commentary and poetic nostalgia”
Why See This Film
Shot on location and featuring a cast of mostly first-time performers, The President's Cake is a beautifully realised vision of innocence lost, using a child's point of view to highlight the absurd contradictions of life under an authoritarian regime. Despite the grim subject matter, Hadi's lightness of touch allows moments of humour and human connection to shine through, with wise-beyond-years performances from his child leads.
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