For Iraqis who endured the 1990s, Saddam Hussein’s birthday on April 28 was a confusing show of pageantry and propaganda, a day when public squares and bridges across Baghdad were strung with coloured lights, radio stations blared paeans to the leader and schoolchildren were pressured into baking cakes for “Mr President.”
Those childhood memories form the backbone of Iraqi director Hasan Hadi’s debut feature, The President’s Cake, which draws on the small humiliations and surreal demands of life under the regime. The 37-year-old, speaking to AFP in Paris, recalled tactics children used to avoid being chosen for the baking task, from hiding in the bathroom to feigning illness or even bribing teachers. He also remembers a classmate who failed to produce a cake, was expelled, conscripted as a child soldier and later died, a stark example of how a trivial mistake could change a life.
Hadi’s film follows nine-year-old Lamia and her grandmother as they set out from the southern marshlands to gather the scarce ingredients required to make a cake for Saddam, at a time when UN sanctions had made basics such as eggs, flour and sugar almost impossible to find. The director said the story reflects the contradictions Iraqis were forced to live with: a society stripped of necessities yet compelled to stage lavish celebrations for the dictator, who would appear on state television in a white suit to cut an ornate cake.
Premiering to strong acclaim at Cannes last year, The President’s Cake won a top prize and has since secured a broad international run. The film even attracted the interest of American producer Chris Columbus, known for hits such as “Gremlins” and the “Harry Potter” series, who signed on as an executive producer after seeing the film.
Critics have praised Hadi’s debut: The Hollywood Reporter dubbed it a “tragicomic gem,” while Variety described it as “a compassionate and winsome debut.” Since its Directors’ Fortnight premiere last week, the film has earned consistently strong reviews, with Deadline suggesting it could become Iraq’s first Oscar contender.
Hadi said he hopes the film will prompt Iraqi audiences to reflect on a period that remains insufficiently explored, and to remember how authoritarian rule corrodes basic human decency, forcing people into hypocrisy, deceit and survival habits that outlast the regime itself. He dedicated his Camera d’Or award, which honours first-time directors, to “every kid or child around the world who somehow finds love, friendship and joy amid war, sanctions and dictatorship.”
The release also highlights the fragile state of Iraq’s film industry. Once a flourishing cinema culture, the country now has only an estimated 40 operating theatres. Hadi expressed hope that his film’s success would help revive interest in Iraqi filmmaking.
At Cannes, Hadi shared the spotlight with other Middle Eastern filmmakers: Iranian director Jafar Panahi won the Palme d’Or for It Was Just an Accident, and Palestinian filmmaker Tawfeek Barhom collected a prize for his short I’m Glad You’re Dead Now, using his acceptance to draw attention to the war in Gaza.
Overall, The President’s Cake mixes personal memory with historical critique, using the simple and absurd, task of baking a cake to explore the wider tragedies of life under dictatorship and the resilience of those who survived it.
