The President's Cake (2025)
12-month trend
12-month trend
Monthly article views
2025-09 to 2026-08
A young orphan in rural Iraq must navigate a perilous journey to find ingredients for a mandatory birthday cake for a dictator.
The story
Set in rural Iraq during the Gulf War under Saddam Hussein's heavily sanctioned regime, nine-year-old orphan Lamia lives with her grandmother Bibi in a village in the Mesopotamian Marshes. When Lamia is chosen by her school to bake a cake for the president's birthday, she and her friend Saeed must find ingredients in a nearby city. Facing scarce commodities and threats of punishment from her teacher, Lamia and Bibi travel to the city with items to barter. The journey becomes a dangerous quest as the children navigate a world of international sanctions, theft accusations, and police apathy.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In rural Iraq during the Gulf War, nine-year-old orphan Lamia lives with her grandmother Bibi in the Mesopotamian Marshes. When assigned to bake a cake for Saddam Hussein's birthday, Lamia and her friend Saeed travel to a nearby city to source ingredients. While Bibi intends to find a foster mother for Lamia, the girl flees to find Saeed. They face various hardships, including accusations of theft, forged money from a pawned watch, and the theft of Lamia's cockerel, Hindi. Bibi, suffering from hypoglycemia, collapses and is hospitalized while searching for Lamia. Lamia and Saeed eventually face a confrontation after being robbed and losing Hindi. Lamia is briefly arrested after being lured to an adult cinema by a butcher but is released by Jasim. They return to the hospital to find Bibi has died. After burying her, Lamia bakes the cake with Saeed's mother. The next day, at the school celebration, Lamia refuses to partake. As the teacher tastes the cake, air raid sirens sound, and the children take shelter from bombs, staring at each other in fear. The film concludes with archival footage of Saddam Hussein's televised birthday celebration.
- First release year
- 2025
- Runtime (minutes)
- 105
- Production countries
- Iraq; Qatar; United States
- Original languages
- Arabic (Iraqi dialect)
- Directors
- Hasan Hadi
- Writers
- Hasan Hadi · writer; Eric Roth · co-writer
- Cast and characters
- Baneen Ahmad Nayyef · Lamia; Sajad Mohamad Qasem · Saeed; Waheed Thabet Khreibat · Bibi; Rahim AlHaj · Jasim; Maytham Mreidi · Saeed's father; Ahmad Hameed Ahmad · Watch Seller; Aqeel Al-Shamri · Flour Worker; Tayseer Ibrahim Radi · Butcher
- Genres
- drama
- Themes
- Childhood innocence; War and sanctions; Survival; Family bonds
- Tone and mood
- Tragicomic; Devastating; Poignant
- Premise and plot tags
- Historical Drama; War Drama; Coming-of-age
- Reception
- The film received universal acclaim, with high scores on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. Critics praised the performances and direction, though some noted it relied on stereotypes of Iraq.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 8/10 · review count: 81; Metacritic · score: 84/100 · review count: 17
- Awards and nominations
- Best International Feature Film · 98th Academy Awards · shortlist
- Production trivia
- It was the first film from Iraq to compete in the Directors' Fortnight.; The film was filmed entirely in Iraq using mostly untrained actors.; The film received support from the Doha Film Institute and SFFILM Ranin Grant.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…