‘The President’s Cake’ Review: Party Politics
A review in Nytimes says Hasan Hadi’s The President’s Cake, shot entirely in Iraq and set in the wake of the international sanctions imposed in 1990, examines the ritual of Saddam Hussein’s birthday through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl. Lamia lives in the Mesopotamian marshes with her grandmother and is chosen at school to bake the cake, a task made fraught by shortages; failure to bring a cake on April 28 could mean harsh punishment.
She and her grandmother travel to the city, with Lamia’s pet rooster, Hindi, and soon find they have different ideas about the day’s itinerary. Much of the film follows Lamia and a friend, Saeed, as they scramble to procure eggs, flour and sugar, often taking one step forward and two steps back; they barter and even steal while navigating a world in which police offer little help and where war violence, predatory behavior and death are routine.
Iraq, Mesopotamian marshes