The President’s Cake: A Heartbreaking, Human Story in 1990s Iraq

Description

Intimate, human stories unfailingly offer us an empathetic entryway to the incomprehensible geopolitical realities that shape our fractured world. Filmmakers in the Middle East, especially, have long understood this, using portraits of the innocent pre-teens to compel international interest in a region too easily overlooked and too often misunderstood. The most enduring portrait of the Lebanese Civil War, West Beirut (1998), focused on a young boy coming of age in a divided city. Wadjda (2012), the first feature film made by a female Saudi director, focused on the titular 10-year-old girl. Iranian drama The White Balloon (1995) chronicles a seven-year-old girl’s day spent attempting to purchase a goldfish to celebrate Persian New Year.

In tone and execution, The President’s Cake is closest to the latter. It’s 1990 in war-torn Iraq and dictator Saddam Hussein insists the whole country celebrate his birthday, despite crippling sanctions and food shortages which mean even procuring sugar may require performing an illicit act. Nine-year-old village girl Lamia is tasked with presenting a cake to class – sparking a heartbreaking day out when she, her rooster and ageing grandmother Bibi set off to the city in search of four simple ingredients. When Lamia flees her overwrought sole guardian, she discovers much more – thieves, perverts, betrayal and heartbreak. Somehow, the cake is finally baked, yet its enjoyment is curtailed by a tragic closing scene that multiplies every injustice already viscerally felt. 

The first-time feature of writer/director Hasan Hadi, The President’s Cake is the first Iraqi film to be honoured at Cannes Film Festival, winning both the Caméra d’Or and Directors’ Fortnight People’s Choice Audience Award following its premiere last year. It’s now being released exclusively in Hong Kong at Broadway Cinematheque, with preview screenings from 11 July, before going on general release from 16 July.