Curzon Film
The President's Cake
Set in early 1990s Iraq, when the country was crippled by poverty and UN international sanctions, 9-year old Lamia lives in poverty with her ailing grandmother in the Mesopotamian marshlands. When Lamia’s name is picked out in the class draw, she is faced with the ‘honour’ - and the exceptionally daunting challenge - of baking a cake for her school’s mandatory celebration of Saddam Hussein’s birthday. Her grandmother cannot afford the ingredients and so, together with Lamia’s young friend and her pet rooster, they set off for the city to try and somehow source the ingredients.
Part fairy tale and part moral fable, the film undergoes several tonal shifts, skilfully navigating between the comic, the charming and the tragic, providing a child’s eye view of a brutal dictatorship and the effect that the crippling UN sanctions has on its people.
The film premiered in 2025 at Cannes in the Directors’ Fortnight, winning both the Audience Award and the Caméra d’Or for the best first feature. It went on to make history as the first ever Iraqi film to be shortlisted for the Best International Feature Oscar.
