The President's Cake

Iraq, 1990s. Strict international sanctions have led to extreme poverty and shortages of food and medicine. Lamia (Baneen Ahmed Nayyef), a diligent third-grader, is tasked with scrounging up a cake for her class’s mandatory celebration of Saddam Hussein’s birthday. Should she fail, dire punishment will befall her and her ailing grandmother. Accompanied by her beloved rooster Hindi and pickpocketing friend Saeed (Sajad Mohamad Qasem), Lamia ventures into the city to barter her few belongings for the eggs, sugar, flour, and baking powder she needs.

With dynamic wide-angle shots and a stirring oud-driven soundtrack, The President’s Cake transports us to the enchanting Mesopotamian marshlands of Lamia’s village and the bustling bazaars of Baghdad. Inspired by childhood memories, writer-director Hasan Hadi’s empathetic, tragicomic debut combines charm and menace in a potent neo-realist portrait of a precarious time.

While The President’s Cake mostly plays like a genial fairy tale, with superbly balanced humor and drama, Hadi is still unsparing about the ills of patriarchal society. It is a compassionate and winsome debut, packed with an unassuming punch.

Tomris Laffly, Variety

From the pastoral beauty of its opening sequence to the gut punch of its last, Hadi’s film is an exceptional screen debut, as perceptive as it is kinetic and, with one eye on the bombers overhead, brimming with life.

Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter