The President’s Cake
Set in 1990s Iraq, Hasan Hadi’s uneven debut focuses on a nine-year-old girl selected to bake a cake for Saddam Hussein.
Photo courtesy of Curzon.
by MANSEL STIMPSON
When I watched this debut feature by the writer/director Hasan Hadi, I was reminded of another film which by chance also had the word "cake" in its title. That was 2024’s My Favourite Cake and, although it was set in Iran whereas The President’s Cake plays out in Iraq, comparing these two works is apt because in each case the tale told is one that contains elements of popular appeal but ends up underlining a tragic real-life situation. Both films were faced by the same challenge: how to achieve cohesion in a work which seems at first engaging on a lighter level but which by also reflecting reality becomes increasingly downbeat.
There were viewers who were taken aback to discover that My Favourite Cake changed its tone. They were dismayed that what had seemed a potentially romantic piece portraying two lonely elderly people who are drawn together became a bleak view of Iran's repressive society. Nevertheless, brilliant performances and a screenplay so well judged that the two leading characters were totally believable throughout meant that for most audiences My Favourite Cake illustrated how if handled with skill such a transition can be made to work. Unfortunately, The President's Cake stands as an example of a film which in total contrast to that never manages to find a way to bring its different levels into balance.
Our heroine here is a nine-year-old girl, Lamia, who is looked after by her aged grandmother, Bibi (Waheeda Thabet Khreibat). The tale is set in the early 1990s and begins in April just two days before the birthday of President Saddam Hussein. Celebrating that event is mandatory and at her school where lots are drawn among the pupils Lamia is the one thus chosen to make a special cake for the occasion. Bibi is able to advise her on the ingredients required and takes her to the city to buy these items. Travelling with them is Lamia's friend from school, Saeed, and, because it goes with her everywhere, she also brings along her pet rooster. However, on arrival in the city Lamia overhears Bibi talking to close acquaintances of hers. She realises from these remarks that Bibi has reluctantly decided that she is now too fragile to continue looking after her grandchild and is intending to hand her over to these urban friends. Horrified to learn this, Lamia runs off before anybody can stop her and, aided by Saeed and reassured by still having the rooster with her, she sets out to purchase the ingredients for her cake. Saeed, whose father is a beggar, is not above stealing to fund this and in Lamia's case she is ready to fall back on selling an old watch that had belonged to her late father.
The first half of The President's Cake suggests a tale about children which is of a rather fanciful nature and which could well be aimed at young audiences as well as at older viewers likely to be attracted by it. As such, despite being filmed in wide screen when a more intimate ratio might have suited it better, the film has an old-fashioned air about it. Indeed, it feels not a world away from a long forgotten British film in which Peter Sellers had a supporting role. That was William Fairchild’s John and Julie (1955) in which a nine-year-old boy accompanied by a little girl runs off to London in order to see the coronation of Elizabeth II. In contrast to that innocent world, what we see in The President’s Cake features elements that we find disturbing including our view of the school class where students are regularly required to declare "Long live our leader Saddam Hussein". Yet, rather than this having an impact allowed for by the filmmaker, such elements simply feel out of place given the nature of the central storyline. It seems even more odd when relatively early on the travellers receive a lift and encounter a bridegroom who says that he has just been blinded by an American bomb. Including such an incident could in itself have been disconcerting in this context, but it leaves a weird taste in the mouth when this episode concludes with what is almost a comic pay-off. It appears that the man had agreed to an arranged marriage but that he now has the advantage of not having to worry whether or not the bride is beautiful!
Lasting some 105 minutes The President's Cake comes to feel rather stretched out although it does blend together the episodic attempts to find the cake ingredients with passages concerning those searching for Lamia. The storyline increasingly adds darker elements but the way in which people come together again by chance prevents the film from developing into a seriously convincing narrative. The players are able enough including the two central youngsters Baneen Ahmed Nayyef as Lamia and Sajad Mohamad Qasem as Saeed. But able acting cannot carry the day when the plotting is so contrived (note for example how characters conveniently link up in a police station setting). Including a death in the story may help to prepare us for a downbeat ending, but nevertheless the concluding scene comes across as something imposed on the material in order to give it a sense of tragedy. It does not as it should feel like a natural outcome in line with all that has preceded it.
Original title: Memlaket al-qasab.
Cast: Baneen Ahmed Nayyef, Sajad Mohamad Qasem, Waheeda Thabet Khreibat, Rahim AlHaj, Muthanna Malaghi, Ahmad Qasem Saywan, Thaer Salem, Mohammed Rheimeh, Rokia Alwadi, Maytham Mreidi, Fatima Abouharoon, Tayseer Ibrahim Radi, Abdelkarim Jasim, Nadia Rashak.
Dir Hasan Hadi, Pro Leah Chen Baker, Screenplay Hasan Hadi, Ph Tudor Vladimir Panduru, Pro Des Anamaria Tecu, Ed Andu Radu, Costumes Tamara Nouri.
Missing Piece Films/Working Barn Productions/Maiden Voyage Pictures/ATC Production Films/Spark Features-Curzon.
105 mins. Iraq/Qatar/USA/UK. 2025. US Rel: 6 February 2026. UK Rel: 13 February 2026. Cert. 12A.
