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Hasan Hadi
festival
Fri 24 Apr 26 - Sun 3 May 26
  • Content rating: Caution with children up to 12 years of age

After a lottery at school, the 9-year-old Laima has to bake a birthday cake for Saddam Hussein. With her grandma, she undertakes a dangerous trip to the city in order to buy the ingredients.

In Iraq during the nineteen nineties, poverty-stricken Lamia wins a lottery for the honour of making  a birthday cake for Saddam Hussein. In a country of scarcity, that is a near impossible task. In order to afford the ingredients, her beloved cock Hindi will have to be sold. Together with her grandma and her friend Saeed, she begins a difficult journey to the city.  

“The President’s Cake” is a sensitive film, rich in imagery, that beautifully sets side by side a child’s vulnerability and resilience with the political absurdity of Iraq suffering from sanctions. Layer by layer an intimate and symbolic story about love, survival and silent courage is built up. A visually rich and deeply human festival film.

direction
Hasan Hadi
cast
Rahim AlHaj, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Baneen Ahmad Nayyef
duration
102 min
year
2025
country
Iraq
language
Arabic
Subtitles
Nederlands, Frans
  • Content rating: Caution with children up to 12 years of age

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Regisseur

Hasan Hadi

director

"From the pastoral beauty of its opening sequence to the gut punch of its last, Hadi’s film is an exceptional screen debut, as perceptive as it is kinetic and, with one eye on the bombers overhead, brimming with life." - Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

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