Dir: Hasan Hadi | Cast: Banin Ahmad Nayef, Sajad Mohamad Qasem, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Rahim AlHaj | Drama, 105’
Two kids and a rooster head off on a big adventure to beg, buy or borrow the ingredients for a birthday cake in this rowdy, colourful crowd-pleaser from Hasan Hadi providing social insight into the war-torn 1990s in the region.
This is no ordinary birthday, it’s for the nationwide celebration of President Saddam Hussein and making his cake is not only considered obligatory, it is also an honour. But making a nice cake when food rationing is in place due to the American sanctions is going to be a challenge for the resourceful 9-year-old Lamia (Banin Ahmad Nayef) who lives with her grandmother Bibi (Khreibat) in a dusty village on the edge of the country’s southern marshlands.
Although water is readily available, flour and sugar are in short supply so the young girl is even more desperate to fulfil her mission particularly when she finds out Bibi has just lost her job in the nearby fields and wants to disown her.
Joined by her school friend Saeed (Qasem), who is tasked with finding fresh fruit, the two set off across town and country in a frenzied bid to source the ingredients for a big cake ‘with plenty of cream’ (ordered by her teacher).
The kids form a close bond of friendship during a journey that takes them through noisy markets, dusty roads and vibrant souks where they encounter a collection of jovial and often quarrelsome traders and this more unsettling tone is echoed in the film’s plangent score of local music often punctuated by Hindi the cock’s furious crowing. @MeredithTaylor
The President’s Cake won Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award 2025