20/03/26 – 7.30pm The Venue
Iraq 2025
Dir: Hasan Hadi
Cert 12A
105 mins
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Iraq, the 1990s. 9-year-old Lamia, living with Bibi, her kind-hearted, but ailing grandmother in the Mesopotamian marshes, has been assigned the task by her teacher of baking a cake for the President, as part of his forthcoming birthday celebrations. As the President in question is Saddam Hussein this is not a fun task and the consequences of failure are dire. Although the necessary ingredients for the cake are prohibitively expensive and hard to come by, Lamia and Bibi venture into the city on a mission to find them. It turns out, however, that Bibi has her own hidden agenda… Slipping away from her grandmother, Lamia comes across school friend Saeed and, in a spirit of adventure, they navigate the perils of the city. “The President’s Cake” has an impressive sense of time and place, and is blessed with charming performances by its young stars. It was awarded the “Caméra d’Or” at Cannes 2025.
Trailer: