The President's Cake

Mamlaket Al-Qasab

Hasan HADI

Quinzaine 2025 | Feature film | 102 min | Iraq, United States of America, Qatar |

World premiere | Film in competition for the Caméra d'Or Award

While people struggle daily to survive under sanctions in Saddam's Iraq, nine-year-old Lamia must use her wits to gather ingredients for the mandatory cake to celebrate President Saddam Hussein's birthday or face the consequences—prison or death.

Artistic & technical sheet

Contacts

With

Banin Ahmad Nayef (Lamia), Sajad Mohamad Qasem (Saeed), Waheed Thabet Khreibat (Bibi), Rahim AlHaj (Jasim)

Screenplay

Hasan Hadi

Sound

Tamas Zanyi

Music

Various

Photography

Tudor Vladimir Panduru RSC

Editing

Andu Radu

Production design

Annmarie Tecu

Hasan Hadi is an Iraqi writer/director. Hasan grew up in southern Iraq, during wartime, and over the years worked in journalism, production, and as an adjunct professor at NYU's Graduate Film Program. He received the Gotham-Marcie Bloom Fellowship, the Black Family Production Prize and the Sloan Foundation Production Award. He is a 2022 Sundance Lab Fellow and the recipient of the 2022 Sundance/NHK Award, SFFILM Rainin Grant, and Doha Film Institute Grant for his debut, The President's Cake.