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
Lily Farhadpour, Esmail Mehrabi
Iran/France/Sweden/
Germany
2024
In Farsi with English subtitles
At Vancouver Playhouse
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
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
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
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Resident Orca
Captured in Puget Sound in 1970, killer whale Lolita spent the next half century in a cramped tank in Seaquarium, Miami. The film follows a coalition of Lummi elders, animal lovers and philanthropists on a rescue mission to return her to the ocean.
No Other Land
Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.
Misericordia
Edgy, eccentric, and unapologetically queer, this film goes from drama to comedy without putting a foot wrong. Sex and murder are the subjects, and writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) mines them for suspense and outrageous laughs.
There's Still Tomorrow
A critical and box office sensation in Italy, Paola Cortellesi's triumphant directorial debut is the tale of a Roman housewife in 1946, who stands up against the routine sexist abuse she suffers. Funny, heartbreaking and inspiring.
The Way, My Way
All manner of pilgrims flock to France and Spain to walk the 800 km Camino de Santiago. One such is Bill, a stroppy sexagenarian Australian filmmaker who's determined to do the Camino with minimal prep, a dickey leg, and no firm idea why.