Baneen Ahmad Nayyef as Lamia in The President’s Cake.Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
The President’s Cake
Directed and written by Hasan Hadi
Starring Baneen Ahmad Nayyef and Waheed Thabet Khreibat
Classification N/A; 105 minutes
Opens in select theatres Feb. 27
Critic’s Pick
In a rustic marshland village located somewhere in Iraq, nine-year-old Lamia (Baneen Ahmad Nayyef) lives a simple if struggle-filled life with her grandmother Bibi (Waheed Thabet Khreibat). Lamia goes to school, she comes home, the two scrounge for the daily necessities to get by: milk, flour, sugar. It is sometime in the mid-1990s, and after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, economic sanctions against Iraq have crippled its economy, conditions fiercely exacerbated by the cruel hold Baghdad’s leader has over his people. And then, when it seems as if Lamia’s days cannot become more challenging, she is ordered to bake a cake.
Not just any cake, that is, but a treat to commemorate Hussein’s birthday. The command comes down from Lamia’s cruel schoolteacher, a toady of the administration who knows the task is nigh impossible for the impoverished children he oversees. But fearing any kind of comeuppance, Lamia sets off on a perilous day-long journey to procure the necessary baking ingredients.
The President’s Cake sees Lamia go in search of the ingredients to bake a cake in honour of Saddam Hussein’s birthday.Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
This is the small-in-perspective but grand-in-execution story behind The President’s Cake, the feature directorial debut of Hasan Hadi, which portends tremendous things for its Iraqi-born filmmaker. Shot entirely in the director’s home country with a largely amateur, untrained cast, the film blends a striking sense of street-level realism, political commentary and poetic nostalgia for the naive innocence of youth.
As Lamia’s journey becomes more perilous by the minute, and Bibi becomes increasingly concerned about her granddaughter’s whereabouts and safety, Hadi rebuilds an entire cinematic era from scratch. There are certain sequences, including one in which Lamia weaves between large-scale protests, that feel Hollywood-sized in their size and scope. And all the while, the director coaxes a remarkably affecting performance from his young, untested lead actress. You believe in Lamia’s drive to bake this ridiculous cake because you believe in Nayyef’s conviction and commitment to her character.
Just as Hussein deserved no such dessert, the film does not deserve the ignorance that can so often greet foreign-language indies. Make a cinematic shopping list of your own, and put The President’s Cake at the very top.