Iraqi Film Won the Camera d’Or Award - The President’s Cake

This year, the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival was awarded to Iranian director Jafar Panahi for It Was Just an Accident ( Yek tasadef sadeh ) . To quote from the official program : “What begins as a minor accident sets in motion a series of escalating consequences.” Meanwhile, the Caméra d’Or went to Iraqi director Hasan Hadi for his directorial debut The President’s Cake ( Mamlaket al-qasab ), and the same quote above can be applied to this film as well.

Coincidentally, Jafar Panahi won the Caméra d’Or exactly 30 years ago with his debut film The White Balloon ( Badkonake sefid,1995 ). For me, another coincidence is that, 10 years ago, the FIPRESCI prize in Busan was awarded to Iranian director, Hadi Mohaghegh for his film Immortal ( Mamiroo, 2015), when I was a member of its jury, which awarded the film “for its highly realistic and humane approach in depicting a family tragedy that echoes an universal theme through masterful use of film language.” Actually, the same can be said to describe Hasan Hadi’s film.

But even more coincidentally, Hasan Hadi’s award-winning film also features a young girl as its protagonist. In Panahi’s film, the girl Razieh, and in Hadi’s film, the girl Lamia, both endure bittersweet and heart-wrenching coming-of-age journeys. Razieh’s troubles were relatively minor—she lost the money meant to buy a goldfish to celebrate New Year, but fortunately she received help from many kind strangers. However, in 1990s Iraq, 9-year-old-Lamia, faces far greater hardships. Living in poverty, she depends on her elderly grandmother, who is frail and unable to care for her anymore. The grandmother tries to take Lamia to the city to be adopted by acquaintances. Lamia, unwilling to be separated from her grandmother, seizes the opportunity to escape, only to embark on an experience heavy with suffering that no young girl should have to bear.

She has a classmate and best friend Saeed, also living in great poverty, who tries to snatch things whenever occasion arises. At first, Lamia disapproves his wrong doings, but later she herself is tempted into stealing. The adult world seems to take no sympathy towards such a young and pretty girl. Some merchant in the market seems to be nice and friendly to her, is trying to take advantage of her innocence.

In this movie, the plight of small individuals in a grand, tumultuous era is particularly moving. Years ago, the U.S. government launched a war to overthrow the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Through live broadcasts on television, those of us in East Asia saw countless bombing scenes but were unable to witness the lives of ordinary people under the flames of war. Hassan Hadi’s film portrays the life of ordinary people so vividly that we have the impression of watching a documentary. In a time of chaos, with widespread suffering, government corruption, and poverty, even young schoolchildren are subjected to patriotic indoctrination. In the story, Lamia is randomly selected by her teacher to make a cake to celebrate the president’s birthday. If she fails, she will be punished. Under a tyrannical regime, Lamia encounters mostly bad people, but there is one kind soul who extends a helping hand to the little girl.

Compared to Jafar Panahi’s The White Balloon, which also won the Caméra d’Or, Hassan Hadi’s The President’s Cake is a much more challenging film to make, in terms of production scale and technical requirements. It delves deeply into the suffering of ordinary people under a dictatorship. It is remarkable that Iraq now has such a competent filmmaker who has gained international recognition at the Cannes Film Festival. We hope he will continue to create more outstanding works in the future.

Freddie Wong
©FIPRESCI