The President’s Cake (12A)
Directed by Hasan Hadi
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

THE imposition of UN sanctions on Iraq in 1990 had little impact on Saddam Hussein, but the effect on his citizens was horrendous – typhoid, scarcity, profiteering, exploitation of the vulnerable and 120,000 malnourished children.

Writer-director Hasan Hadi conducts an unflinching examination of the chaos and suffering wrought by US foreign policy, and the willingness of the UN to capitulate to power. 

His picaresque road movie focuses on the exploits of Lamia, an amiable, resilient and impulsive nine-year-old girl, chosen to bake a cake to celebrate Saddam’s birthday in a class lottery. In a time of catastrophic food shortages, this is more curse than privilege: there’s nothing sweet about the president’s cake.

In a telling early scene, Lamia’s teacher, a capricious bully, steals an apple from her bag, and when she “wins” the lottery tells her the cake – which he alone will eat – must contain extra cream.

Lamia leaves her home in the marshes and heads for the city with Bibi, her grandmother, and her pet rooster, Hindi. After traipsing from stall to stall, haggling for inferior but unaffordable ingredients, Lamia is separated from her grandmother and continues her quest with schoolfriend Saeed, whose skills as a thief become both boon and liability. 

The children endure a series of encounters – some frustrating, others harrowing – with deftly portrayed crooks including: a pawnshop owner who pays them in counterfeit notes; a baker demanding sex with a pregnant customer in exchange for groceries; and, in a particularly harrowing scene, a paedophile poulterer who lures Lamia to a porno cinema.   

But this isn’t a tale of unadulterated misery and exploitation. There is kindness too, exemplified by the genial postman who gives Lamia and Bibi a lift, while extolling the cake as the epitome of civilisation; the family who care for Lamia at her lowest ebb; the café singer who dances with her; and the woman exploited by the baker, who tries to make the children co-beneficiaries of her grim negotiations.   

The people Lamia meets are archetypes rather than characters with psychological depth, but they are beautifully written and portrayed. Hasan illustrates the adversities and privations of life under dictatorship with a handful of understated images, gestures and glances. 

The film’s cinematography is integral to the emotions it conveys. In a joyful, celebratory scene the camera swings to show the action in a mirror, next to a flattering portrait of Saddam.    

Life-affirming, honest, gripping and essential viewing.  

In cinemas February 13