A brave and touching film made by two Iranian filmmakers who were subsequently denied permission to attend the film’s World Premiere in Germany, My Favourite Cake won prizes at the Berlinale and now receives its UK Premiere in Edinburgh.
With her grown-up children now living abroad, seventy-year-old widow Mahin (Lili Farhadpour) lives on her own, tending to her garden and sharing occasional gossip-filled lunches with her group of female friends. Succumbing to their pressure to find herself a companion after being solitary for 30 years, she befriends lonely taxi driver Faramarz (Esmaeel Mehrabi) and they spend a joyful evening in each other’s company.
When Mahin makes the first contact with Faramarz, the audience already knows that she is pushing boundaries. Writers and directors Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam have already shown us through earlier scenes how the Morality Police operate, chiding and even arresting women for not wearing their hijab correctly, or for being unaccompanied in public with a man. But we have also seen that Mahin is of the age where she cares less about the rules now. Her age and life experience mean that she can remember a time when women had more freedom, and indeed she played her part in fighting for it alongside the men.
And so – despite the attempts of a curious neighbour to stick her unwanted nose into Mahin’s business – there follows a charming, delightful evening of food, wine, and dancing, along with conversations and shared observations about getting old, about the old times, about loneliness. Because of earlier scenes, there is always a hint that their illicit evening of harmless fun will land them in trouble with the Morality Police, and yet the connection between the two people overrides everything.
My Favourite Cake presents the real-life – sometimes without hijab – of older women in Iran, and does it touchingly and with gentle humour. Nevertheless, the Iranian authorities took exception to the work of the filmmakers Sanaeeha and Moghaddam, and confiscated their passports, making it impossible for them to be in Berlin for the film’s world premiere. The film is not stridently political, even though it certainly points fingers at things that have become repressive in Iranian society, but Iran’s reaction highlights the ongoing restrictions on freedom of expression of both filmmakers and ordinary citizens.
My Favourite Cake is an absolute pleasure to watch – for its acting, its storytelling, and its emotion. And also to remind us of the freedoms afforded to us, which have been so swiftly taken away from those who made it.
My Favourite Cake receives its UK Premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024.
A brave and touching film made by two Iranian filmmakers who were subsequently denied permission to attend the film’s World Premiere in Germany, My Favourite Cake won prizes at the Berlinale and now receives its UK Premiere in Edinburgh.
With her grown-up children now living abroad, seventy-year-old widow Mahin (Lili Farhadpour) lives on her own, tending to her garden and sharing occasional gossip-filled lunches with her group of female friends. Succumbing to their pressure to find herself a companion after being solitary for 30 years, she befriends lonely taxi driver Faramarz (Esmaeel Mehrabi) and they spend a joyful evening in each other’s company.
When Mahin makes the first contact with Faramarz, the audience already knows that she is pushing boundaries. Writers and directors Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam have already shown us through earlier scenes how the Morality Police operate, chiding and even arresting women for not wearing their hijab correctly, or for being unaccompanied in public with a man. But we have also seen that Mahin is of the age where she cares less about the rules now. Her age and life experience mean that she can remember a time when women had more freedom, and indeed she played her part in fighting for it alongside the men.
And so – despite the attempts of a curious neighbour to stick her unwanted nose into Mahin’s business – there follows a charming, delightful evening of food, wine, and dancing, along with conversations and shared observations about getting old, about the old times, about loneliness. Because of earlier scenes, there is always a hint that their illicit evening of harmless fun will land them in trouble with the Morality Police, and yet the connection between the two people overrides everything.
My Favourite Cake presents the real-life – sometimes without hijab – of older women in Iran, and does it touchingly and with gentle humour. Nevertheless, the Iranian authorities took exception to the work of the filmmakers Sanaeeha and Moghaddam, and confiscated their passports, making it impossible for them to be in Berlin for the film’s world premiere. The film is not stridently political, even though it certainly points fingers at things that have become repressive in Iranian society, but Iran’s reaction highlights the ongoing restrictions on freedom of expression of both filmmakers and ordinary citizens.
My Favourite Cake is an absolute pleasure to watch – for its acting, its storytelling, and its emotion. And also to remind us of the freedoms afforded to us, which have been so swiftly taken away from those who made it.
My Favourite Cake receives its UK Premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024.
Share this:
Like this:
Discover more from The Movie Isle
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.