The President's Cake

Two awards at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, including the Camera d’Or for Best First Feature, for this year’s festival gem. An audience-friendly, bittersweet, and tender tragicomedy from Iraq that transforms childhood innocence into an act of resistance against political brutality.

Synopsis

The 1990s. Under Saddam Hussein’s strict dictatorship and the severe economic impact of international sanctions, a nine-year-old girl is chosen by her school to make the President’s mandatory birthday cake. A perilous task, carrying the risk of imprisonment or corporal punishment in case of failure. Will she succeed when she lacks even the most basic necessities?