Drama

THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE

2025
1 HR, 45 min
APR 3 → APR 9

Details

Released 2025, Iraq, Qatar, United States

Drama

1 hour, 45 minutes

Sony Classics

Arabic with English Subtitles

Starring

Baneen Ahmed Nayyef
Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Waheed Thabet Khreibat
Rahim AlHaj

Director

Hasan Hadi

While people across 1990’s Iraq struggle to survive, 9-year old Lamia has been selected to prepare a cake to celebrate the President’s birthday. In a landscape of fear and scarcity, where basic ingredients are nearly impossible to find, Lamia sets out on a determined journey throughout the big city in search of eggs, flour, and sugar. Accompanied by her grandmother, her loyal friend Saeed, and her pet rooster Hindi, she navigates vendors and police officers along the way.

The President’s Cake , Winner of the Camera D’Or and Audience Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and the Official Iraq Entry for the Best International Film Academy Award 2025, embodies innocence, imagination, and inner strength.

Full Cast

Baneen Ahmed Nayyef Lamia

Sajad Mohamad Qasem Saeed

Waheed Thabet Khreibat Bibi

Rahim AlHaj Jasim

Additional Credits

Hasan Hadi Director

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Reviews

“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.”

Barry Hertz

Globe and Mail

“While The President’s Cake mostly plays like a genial fairy tale, with superbly balanced humor and drama, Hadi is still unsparing about the ills of patriarchal society. It is a compassionate and winsome debut, packed with an unassuming punch.”

Tomris Laffly

Variety

“This detail-rich and tremendously moving moral fable uncovers harsh realities in Iraqi society without departing from the earnest perspective of its knee-high protagonist, and without diminishing the dignity or value of her hopes and dreams.”

Isaac Feldberg

RogerEbert.com