The President's Cake

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Date Reviewed: 28/03/2026

For me, film is something to escape with, regardless of the mood I’m in. It’s something that I can tap out of reality with, just for an hour or two, and transports me elsewhere. This could have me leaving the film feeling wholesomely happy, or with my beliefs challenged, or a little bit wiser having just learnt something. 

The President’s Cake left me feeling complex.

This film was a journey. 

This movie left me with a small yet big insight into life in Iraq that I’ve otherwise never thought of or knew of. While not based on a true story per se, it was inspired by true events during the childhood of Writer-Director Hasan Hadi. It was an insight into life as a child in Iraq under the Presidency of Saddam Hussein. It was also  in Arabic with subtitles, and not dubbed in English, which I was glad to see from the get go as this adds to the authenticity. Films like this hold so much more weight to me and make them all the more intriguing. 

What stood out for me was the journey of friendship between 2 children. We followed it as they travelled from their poverty-stricken home into the city for a day, and then back again. I watched as their innocent friendship and interactions transform as the day goes on, only to be riddled with more and more angst as they are faced with hurdle after hurdle. I could almost feel how the emotional state of their little minds and bodies was filling to bursting point, and yet there really isn’t space for any emotional release for the poor child. Even the dialogue throughout the entire film was mostly tense. That day in the city was painful to watch, only for the children to return back to their poverty-stricken home, as if nothing really happened. Except that everything had happened. 

I don’t want to provide and spoilers, but this movie was neither happy nor sad. It just was. It was just a small window into the life of a child in extreme poverty, stuck between a (very) hard place and a rock. But this child knew no different, and therefore was, what appeared to me, accepting of her situation. There was no happy or sad ending, this was just life as she knew it. In fact, there wasn’t really any ending at all; the viewer is left knowing that the misfortune this child has and is experiencing - is just living - is just constant. And she knows no other way of life. 

If you don’t know what you don’t know, are you suffering? Do you know that some live better than this? Or is ignorance bliss even in extreme poverty? What else was going on during this time? 

This movie challenged me. It raised such questions as those above, as well as others. It made me question humanity, and hope, and how one can somehow find it to keep on keeping on, even in the most abysmal conditions. Even when you are alone. While this movie was neither happy nor sad, I was left with mixed feelings, or rather, multiple feelings. Like I said, it was a journey. Sadness, angst, hope, despair, anger, calm, confronted, curiosity - there was a weird yet complex bag of emotions felt along the way, and this is why, by the end of the film, I felt complex.

 I did feel like this was the goal of the movie, though, and I did escape reality. For that, this film, to me, is a success.

Reviewed by Juliet