The President's Cake
Iraq, sometime during the 1990s. Nine-year-old Lamia is the unlucky winner of a yearly tradition: one child is drawn, having to bake a cake for President Saddam Hussein.
Finding all the ingredients for a cake is tough. Even getting the basics needed to survive is hard, so finding baking soda is almost impossible. To make matters worse, if Lamia fails to bake the cake, her whole family will be punished. The President's Cake uses dark humour and a light touch, but it still addresses the serious situation.
The film had its premiere in the Director's Fortnight section at Cannes, where it won the Audience Award and the Camera d'Or for best debut feature.
Culture Hub: Wine Tasting
On Saturday, March 21, you can start the festival evening with a wine tasting in the Vika basement from 16.00. Wines from the Arab world are bold, spicy, and full of personality – just like the films we show.
Read more and buy tickets here.
This film is part of
Original title مملكة القصب (Mamlaket al-qasab)
Country Iraq, Qatar, USA
Year 2025
Director Hasan Hadi
Screenplay Hasan Hadi
Cinematography Tudor Vladimir Panduru
Producer Leah Chen Baker
Cast Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Distribution Selmer Media
Runtime 1h 45m
Language Arabic
Subtitles Norwegian
Genre Drama
Format DCP
Age limit 9
Links IMDb
