1990s Iraq is not the place to be living if you are required to produce a cake at 48 hours’ notice. Hasan Hadi’s feature debut follows a young girl charged with this task in The President’s Cake, opening this week in UK cinemas.
As a location or setting for movies, Iraq only seems to appear in the context of American war films from the start of this century (eg Jarhead, The Hurt Locker). And so to come across a film, in Arabic, from an Iraqi filmmaker recalling aspects of his childhood in the 1990s is an unexpected delight.
The President’s Cake focusses on something that director Hasan Hadi remembers from his own childhood. Despite the fact that people across the country were struggling to survive war and food shortages, the President at the time, Saddam Hussein, insisted that every school celebrated his birthday with flowers, fruit and a cake. Lots were drawn in each school, and the ‘winners’ were required to produce the necessary items on the President’s birthday. 9-year-old Lamia (Baneen Ahmed Nayyef) has the task of bringing the cake, and must find a way to do so or face the consequences.
Before the draw is made, we have already learned that Lamia lives a simple, impoverished life with her grandmother (Waheed Thabet Khreibat), and that they struggle to have a minimum to sustain themselves, let alone the ingredients for a cake for someone who is never going to see it. But knowing what will happen if they don’t succeed, the elderly woman and her granddaughter (with her pet cockerel Hindi) set out to the city with their most treasured possessions to try to find a way to obtain the ingredients.
The narrative itself is a careful balance of coincidence, humour and sadness, in which Lamia and her friend Saeed (Sajad Mohamad Qasem) become separated from their respective adults, and find ingenious but not always successful ways to acquire eggs, flour and sugar. They are dependent on the kindness (or otherwise) of strangers, and the film makes it clear that most people are also in difficult circumstances, and can’t really help. Hadi also makes no bones about the fact that those who do help only do so if there is something in it for them. Petty theft, sleazy propositions, and corrupt authorities are ever-present, leaving the viewer with a specific view of life in Iraq in the 1990s; one where the police are more interested in ensuring the President’s birthday celebration goes smoothly rather than looking for a missing child, and where grown men are only too speedy to take advantage of women and girls in need of assistance.
The majority of the cast are non-professional actors, which serves to provide authenticity to many of the scenes (in particular one where the grandmother has to visit the police station). Baneen Ahmed Nayyef as Lamia is particularly engaging – she is the focus of most of the scenes and is both heartbreaking and delightful where required. She clearly has talent, but credit must also go to the director for guiding her to produce such a wonderful performance.
While there are humorous elements to The President’s Cake, there is no doubting the underlying commentary on the state of the country at the time, and for this alone, it’s a very culturally interesting film. And having been on Lamia’s journey with her, stay to the end credits for some images that will really make your blood boil.
The President’s Cake is released in UK cinemas on 13th February 2026.
1990s Iraq is not the place to be living if you are required to produce a cake at 48 hours’ notice. Hasan Hadi’s feature debut follows a young girl charged with this task in The President’s Cake, opening this week in UK cinemas.
As a location or setting for movies, Iraq only seems to appear in the context of American war films from the start of this century (eg Jarhead, The Hurt Locker). And so to come across a film, in Arabic, from an Iraqi filmmaker recalling aspects of his childhood in the 1990s is an unexpected delight.
The President’s Cake focusses on something that director Hasan Hadi remembers from his own childhood. Despite the fact that people across the country were struggling to survive war and food shortages, the President at the time, Saddam Hussein, insisted that every school celebrated his birthday with flowers, fruit and a cake. Lots were drawn in each school, and the ‘winners’ were required to produce the necessary items on the President’s birthday. 9-year-old Lamia (Baneen Ahmed Nayyef) has the task of bringing the cake, and must find a way to do so or face the consequences.
Before the draw is made, we have already learned that Lamia lives a simple, impoverished life with her grandmother (Waheed Thabet Khreibat), and that they struggle to have a minimum to sustain themselves, let alone the ingredients for a cake for someone who is never going to see it. But knowing what will happen if they don’t succeed, the elderly woman and her granddaughter (with her pet cockerel Hindi) set out to the city with their most treasured possessions to try to find a way to obtain the ingredients.
The narrative itself is a careful balance of coincidence, humour and sadness, in which Lamia and her friend Saeed (Sajad Mohamad Qasem) become separated from their respective adults, and find ingenious but not always successful ways to acquire eggs, flour and sugar. They are dependent on the kindness (or otherwise) of strangers, and the film makes it clear that most people are also in difficult circumstances, and can’t really help. Hadi also makes no bones about the fact that those who do help only do so if there is something in it for them. Petty theft, sleazy propositions, and corrupt authorities are ever-present, leaving the viewer with a specific view of life in Iraq in the 1990s; one where the police are more interested in ensuring the President’s birthday celebration goes smoothly rather than looking for a missing child, and where grown men are only too speedy to take advantage of women and girls in need of assistance.
The majority of the cast are non-professional actors, which serves to provide authenticity to many of the scenes (in particular one where the grandmother has to visit the police station). Baneen Ahmed Nayyef as Lamia is particularly engaging – she is the focus of most of the scenes and is both heartbreaking and delightful where required. She clearly has talent, but credit must also go to the director for guiding her to produce such a wonderful performance.
While there are humorous elements to The President’s Cake, there is no doubting the underlying commentary on the state of the country at the time, and for this alone, it’s a very culturally interesting film. And having been on Lamia’s journey with her, stay to the end credits for some images that will really make your blood boil.
The President’s Cake is released in UK cinemas on 13th February 2026.
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