THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE (Mamlaket al-qasab)

M 1hrs 45mins

drama | 2025, USA, Qatar, Iraq | Arabic

Overview

While people across 1990s Iraq struggle to survive the war and food shortages, Saddam Hussein requires each school in the country to prepare a cake to celebrate his birthday. Despite her efforts to avoid getting picked, 9-year-old Lamia is chosen among her classmates. The young girl must now use her wits and imagination to gather ingredients for the mandatory cake or face the consequences.

Warnings

Coarse language

Director

Hasan Hadi

Original Review

Nicolas Van Der Haar, On The House!

Extracted By

Mark Horner

Featuring

Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem

Watch The Trailer

THE PRESIDENT'S CAKE | Offical Trailer | In Cinemas April 2

Storyline (warning: spoilers)

The President’s Cake is much more a character study than a film about cooking. This is a fantastic debut by Hasan Hadi, and the film won the Cannes Audience Award and the Caméra d’Or.
The characters are superb and uniquely positioned to comment on the world they inhabit. Most of these characters are designed, in their positive and negative ways, to represent how most people react to authoritarian government and their society slowly collapsing around them. There are profiteers, loyalists, perverts, cowards, and people struggling through no matter the cost. Lamia is the best example of this, and Baneen Ahmed Nayyef is the standout star. She has a subdued but deeply emotional performance.
Placards and posters of Saddam Hussein can be spotted throughout the film. He is almost a physical presence in the film. Reminders of the regime in which the characters inhabit and the real-time effects of authoritarian government on the people in this film. Hussein has an interfering role in these characters’ lives.
The overall message of The President’s Cake is not about Saddam Hussein or the individuals’ characters. For me, it’s about the sheer waste that accumulates in authoritarian governments. Figures of authority (teachers, police, etc.) are too preoccupied with the president's birthday to actually lead, govern, or maintain order.
Society slowly begins to collapse when one man leads and directs it because any community of people is by its very nature collaborative and adaptable. Through The President’s Cake, I think the audience can see something being said about the natural state of society. I’m not suggesting in this review what the natural state of society is, just that The President’s Cake is a damning indictment of authoritarian leadership as a form of government.