The Iraqi helmer’s film premiered in Cannes this year and suddenly, I couldn’t imagine a world without its presence. But it was as if one day, Hasan Hadi’s presence and talent exploded onto our consciousness, ready for this till-then unknown to take his place in the world of cinema greats.
Works of neorealism in world cinema are filled with stories of children trying to survive the bad, and ugly adult world. From Iranian helmer Jafar Panahi’s The Mirror, to Italian director Vittorio De Sica’s Shoeshine, legendary filmmakers have hidden their very grown up themes in stories of little girls and little boys trying to make it through a simple set of tasks — which become incredibly complicated for them due to their young age. It’s a great way to tackle the deep with grace and still possess the lightness needed to keep audiences entertained, which is a thin tightrope for filmmakers to walk, always.
Ultimately, what these films are about is survival, for all of us as a human race and with his first feature, Cannes 2025 Camera d’Or winner Hasan Hadi joins their very esteemed company by bringing his Iraqi story The President’s Cake to the big screen. And in the process, digs a well into our hearts which fills with love — love for the story, love for his pint-sized protagonist Lamia and, last but not least, love for an emerging filmmaker who exudes vulnerability and talent. Talent well beyond his young years!
I may sound partial to The President’s Cake and its filmmakers — the producer for this film is Leah Chen Baker who should be on everyone’s radar as well — and make no mistake, I am. I met the duo in Qatar earlier this year, during the Doha Film Institute’s annual industry incubator Qumra. I was assigned their project to mentor in press etiquette and found within the duo a team that could conquer the world. But quietly, without ego and through a film that required much work and a lot of dedication. The marshes featured in the film, so indispensable to the story and landscape, were completely recreated by Hadi, Chen Baker and the team, including the film’s art director Anamarie Tecu. So well, in fact, that during filming, a group of tourists visiting the area started to take photos to show back at home, absolutely believing that the location was a typical Iraqi marsh setting.
I also was lucky enough to be invited by the duo to watch the film at their emotional world premiere in Cannes, in the Directors’ Fortnight, where friends, family and various industry heavyweights celebrated this work of art for the big screen. It was a magical moment which will never leave my thoughts.
The story of The President’s Cake takes place in Saddam Huseein’s 1990s Iraq, a period when citizens were required to bake cakes to celebrate his birthday. Already tolled by international sanctions imposed on the country by the UNSC after Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, getting assigned the “prestigious” task of baking a cake for an Iraqi child living in the remote Mesopotamian Marshes meant a nearly unbearable burden. And so, when little Lamia (outstanding newcomer Banin Ahmad Nayef), a nine year old living with her feisty grandmother (Waheed Thabet Khreibat) sees her name picked from an unlucky, and rigged, lottery of schoolchildren’s as the designated cake baker for the occasion, her life takes on a voyage through the absurd. Absurdity lies at every corner of this story, but the kind of absurdity that raises the little hairs on my arms because it’s so true to life. Aided by her best friend Saeed (Sajad Mohamad Qasem) who has also been chosen to bring fruit to school for Saddam’s birthday, Lamia finds herself struggling to complete the task, in a battle against time, societal norms and her non-existent budget. Adding in a pet rooster, which Lamia carries around almost like a purse, and childhood inexperience, The President’s Cake presents a film like no other, dipped in the tradition of those pint-sized heroes that have conquered our hearts before, yet completely new, fresh and in a class of its own. I wouldn’t be surprised if it went straight to the shortlist of this year’s Best International Feature Film at the Oscars, as the Iraqi submission.
Romanian DoP Tudor Vladimir Panduru provides the shots, in a film that defied all reason to create a world now gone, in an Iraq which existed what seems like a lifetime ago. Sound adds to the atmosphere and is the work of Hungarian sound designer Tamás Zányi, along with a soundtrack filled with traditional instruments which highlights the long-gone period the film takes place in. And reminds us, from time to time, that Iraq is a country rich with history and tradition.
Ultimately, The President’s Cake will turn out to be a political film to most who view it. Its shot to fame in the US, including the timely purchase by Sony Pictures Classics for the film’s American release, has probably a lot to do with the never-talked-about guilt the US feels towards the destruction of Iraq, its traditions and its beautiful culture, all while on their watch. Along with the abandoning of all those Iraqis who helped the Western megapower in deposing Saddam, left there to suffer in an unstable and dangerous new Iraq.
But to me, Hadi’s story is about a little girl fighting against all odds, trying to survive in a big bad world created by adults, who claim to know better than her, and yet are outsmarted by this tiny beauty with a resolve of steel. Lamia is, perhaps, all of us as children, as we tried to figure out just what the adults in our lives were doing and why. And, unfortunately, learned to play their games instead of following our dreams.
For that, The President’s Cake is a winning film, and Hadi and Chen Baker, two talents to watch!
Images courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics, used with permission.