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My Favourite Cake film image; a couple snuggles together watching something on a phone

My Favourite Cake

Keyke Mahboobe Man / کیک محبوب من

Special Presentations

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Mahin (Lily Farhadpour), a 70-year-old widow, has been living alone in Tehran since her husband died and her daughter moved abroad, her solitary existence marked mainly by lunches with female friends. At one of these gatherings, the conversation turns to the question of late-in-life romance, and Mahin subsequently finds herself breaking her daily routine with the express intention of meeting a man. An encounter with a like-minded cab driver (Esmail Mehrabi) quickly blossoms into much more than she could have anticipated.

Co-directed by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, My Favourite Cake is a gentle, humorous meditation on love, loss, and loneliness. But befitting its real-life context—both filmmakers were prevented from leaving Iran to attend the film’s Berlinale premiere—the film is also filled with moments of everyday political resistance. Sweet but never saccharine, it is a film that finds delight in the most fleeting and transitory of moments.

 

FIPRESCI Prize, Berlin 2024

Directors
Cast

Lily Farhadpour, Esmail Mehrabi

Credits
Country of Origin

Iran/France/Sweden/
Germany

Year

2024

Language

In Farsi with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+

At Vancouver Playhouse

19+

At Fifth Avenue

96 min
Award Winners Comedy Drama Romance Women Directors
Filmsazan Javan, Caracteres Productions, Hobab, Watchmen Productions

Book Tickets

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Credits & Director

Producer

Gholamreza Mousavi, Behtash Sanaeeha, Étienne de Ricaud, Peter Krupenin, Christopher Zitterbart

Screenwriter

Behtash Sanaeeha, Maryam Moghaddam

Cinematography

Mohammad Haddadi

Editor

Ata Mehrad, Behtash Sanaeeha, Ricardo Saraiva

Production Design

Maryam Moghaddam, Amir Hivand

Original Music

Henrik Nagy

Maryam Moghaddam & Behtash Sanaeeha headshot; My Favourite Cake co-directors

Maryam Moghaddam & Behtash Sanaeeha

Maryam Moghaddam was born in Tehran. She is an actress, screenwriter and director. She graduated from the Performing Arts School of Gothenburg, Sweden. She has performed in various Swedish theatres and has starred in Iranian films such as Jafar Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi’s Closed Curtain (2013), which won a Silver Bear at the 63rd Berlinale. Behtash Sanaeeha was born in Shiraz. After completing his degree in architecture, he began writing scripts and directing short films, documentaries, and commercials. Behtash and Maryam began their collaboration by co-writing Risk of Acid Rain (2015), which was Behtash’s feature directorial debut and was screened at over thirty international festivals. Their first co-directing project Ballad of a White Cow (2021) premiered in competition at Berlinale.

Photo by Mohammad Haddadi

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