****
Premiering at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, it received the Camera D’Or for outstanding first feature. My Father’s Shadow (streaming on Mubi soon ) was another Iraqi film which won a Special Mention award at the same festival; a brilliant film that depicts the country’s tumultuous history through children’s eyes.
I must recognise the Eye Cinema for screening the film, and its continued efforts to showcase international cinema. I firmly believe that the best recent films have originated from foreign language-speaking countries, but are disappointingly ignored by Galway cinemas.
The Eye Cinema continues to keep this flame alive, screening films from Vietnam and Hong Kong recently as part of the East Asia Film Festival Ireland, as well as partnering with the Spanish Embassy for a free showing of Spanish film I am Nevenka, followed by an in-person Q&A. They have curated an Italian Film Festival in April, and I would urge film fans to take advantage of this opportunity and engage with films they might not usually consider.
It is 1990 and Saddam Hussein’s birthday is fast approaching. Despite devastating poverty caused by economic sanctions imposed on Iraq, it is demanded that the President’s birthday be celebrated countrywide. Considered a great honour, Lamia is randomly chosen by her school teacher to bake a cake for the celebrations.
What is immediately striking about The President’s Cake is how grand-scale it feels. Usually, with personal films from first-time directors, the result can be quite grounded and obscured, focusing on a character’s narrow perspective, rather than a comprehensive view of the world they live in.
From the opening shot, Hadi presents a panoramic view of Iraq, familiarising us with a country that might be a mystery to many. A river community where children row themselves to school and back, living in wooden shacks on the water. It draws you in by the specificity of these characters’ modest existences, and visualises it in an incredibly cinematic way that gives you a comprehensive view of life in 1990.
Much like Jafar Panahi, (director of this year’s Oscar-nominated It Was Just an Accident ), Hadi explores the effects of living in an authoritarian regime without being overtly political. The hardship is depicted through the difficulty these poor people face to simply survive.
Lamia, a 9 year-old girl, and the main character, dreads the possibility of her name being drawn to prepare the cake, because the cost involved to source the basic ingredients is a serious burden for her and her grandmother. This is communicated with great subtlety as just one glance at her grandmother’s body language details how strenuous a task it is.
The film avoids being too self-pitying, or emotionally manipulative. Much of it takes place over the course of one day, as Lamia and friend Saeed, traverse the city, desperate to obtain basic ingredients.
Strangely, it feels like an adventure film, with ups and downs during their odyssey. It is quite funny at times – in a tragic sort of way – and you become invested in their mission. Danger lurks around every corner.
Seeing children face such fear and anguish for something so inconsequential emphasises the film’s ultimate goal, laying bare the inhumanity of the country’s political system.
It is an incredibly assured debut from Hasan Hadi, who, as the writer-director, depicts the world from his childhood with great dimension and specificity, while still making a highly entertaining and emotionally involving film.
4/5 stars
Now showing at Eye Cinema
