The President’s Cake

Directed by Hasan Hadi, The President’s Cake follows a young girl (Baneen Ahmed Nayyef’s Lamia) as she’s tasked with baking a cake for Saddam Hussein’s upcoming birthday – with the movie charting Lamia’s ongoing efforts at procuring the ingredients for said cake. Filmmaker Hadi, working from his own screenplay, has infused the proceedings with an exceedingly (and often excessively) deliberate feel that tends to prevent the viewer from wholeheartedly embracing the protagonist’s exploits, and it’s clear, too, that the arms-length vibe is compounded by a subdued, episodic structure and general absence of forward momentum. There’s little doubt, then, that The President’s Cake‘s mild success is due predominantly to Nayyef’s impressive (and thoroughly stirring) turn as the completely sympathetic central character, while the inclusion of a compelling stretch towards the end, wherein Lamia loses her beloved rooster, ensures that the picture improves in its comparatively gripping third act – which ultimately confirms the movie’s place as a decent-enough endeavor that succeeds mostly as an eye-opening look into life within a totalitarian regime.

**1/2 out of ****