Director Hasan Hadi Shares Heartfelt Childhood Story Behind Iraq’s Oscar Entry, ‘The President’s Cake’
Iraqi Film “The President’s Cake” Captivates Audiences Following Cannes Premiere
Iraqi director Hasan Hadi’s heartfelt drama, The President’s Cake, had its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival in May and has garnered significant acclaim since then.
The film received the prestigious Caméra d’Or award for best first film across both the Official Selection and parallel sections. Additionally, it secured the Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award and was quickly acquired by Sony Pictures Classics.
Set during the final years of President Saddam Hussein’s regime, against the backdrop of severe sanctions following the invasion of Kuwait, the narrative draws heavily from Hadi’s own childhood experiences.
The story revolves around Lamia (Banin Ahmad Nayef), a poverty-stricken nine-year-old tasked with baking a birthday cake for the president. The stakes are high: failure could result in dire consequences for her family, including imprisonment or worse.
Hadi disclosed that the plot was inspired by the real-life experiences of a childhood classmate who was once selected for a similar task.
An alumnus of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Grad Film program, Hadi developed the feature with support from the Sundance Labs before returning to his native Iraq. Despite suggestions to film in a more secure location due to ongoing violence, Hadi maintained his commitment to shooting in Iraq.
“I was very much willing to gamble. … Stories have identity, have DNAs, have roots,” Hadi stated. “And this story was very much rooted in the marshes of Iraq, in the south of Iraq, in Baghdad. … I also wanted to break this stigma about Iraq, which is perceived in a very certain way in people’s minds.”
