The President’s Cake: Iraq Period Piece Is Just a Touch Too Sweet

By Chris Knight

Rating: B+

The latest Iraqi film to be submitted for the best international feature at the Oscars — it made the shortlist but not the final five nominees — The President’s Cake is an unabashed, all-around crowd pleaser.

It took home audience awards in Athens, Cannes, and Santa Fe, plus a host of other festival prizes. It features an adorable pet rooster. It is also, like an inexpertly made confection, a little too sweet for my tastes.

The film’s pedigree cannot be faulted, however. Writer-director Hasan Hadi grew up in Iraq in the 1990s, when its leader Saddam Hussein was at the height of his powers. One of his many decrees was for schoolchildren to bake him birthday cakes every April.

Nine-year-old Lamia (Baneen Ahmad Nayyaf) is handed this dubiously honourable assignment by her teacher, who is a former soldier and a big Saddam fan. (Everyone was a big Saddam fan.) “Make it cream-filled,” he insists, clearly realizing that if the Supreme Leader doesn’t show up in person, he can eat it himself.

What follows is a picaresque outing as Lamia and her eight-year-old pal Saeed (Sajad Mohamad Qasam) head into Baghdad to find flour, sugar, and eggs. They have little money, and ingredients like this are expensive and hard to find, but what else can they do?

They leave behind Lamia’s caregiver/grandma Bibi (Waheed Thabet Khreibat), who spends the rest of the film in frantic search of her charge.

I was a little surprised to find out that all the actors are first-timers and non-professionals; they deliver heartfelt and believable performances, not least young Lamia, who seldom cracks a smile (why would she?) during her epic quest.

Also, great fun is watching Bibi at the police station, pitting old-lady energy against cop bureaucracy in real unstoppable force/immovable object showdown.

But despite all the background peril (fighter jets flying overhead) and notwithstanding one super-creepy food purveyor, everything seems to run just a little too smoothy.

Presumably this is a conscious choice on the part of the filmmaker. But when your viewers can easily see where the rough edges have been sanded down to a fine sheen, perhaps it’s a sign to put down the sandpaper, or at least choose a coarser grade.

No matter. The President’s Cake remains a lovely tale, with some sweeping, almost touristic views of Baghdad, and a slightly ambiguous downbeat ending. After all, hindsight tells us that in 1990 Iraq, the Americans were coming, soon, and not for the last time.

The President’s Cake. Directed by Hasan Hadi. Starring Baneen Ahmad Nayyaf, Sajad Mohamad Qasam, and Waheed Thabet Khreibat. In theatres February 27.