The President's Cake (2026) [Movie Review] — A Poetic Portrait of Childhood and Survival

Directed and written by Hasan Hadi, The President’s Cake follows Lamia, a resourceful girl in 1990, who is tasked with baking a cake for the country’s leader as celebrations and shortages collide. Set in the days after the invasion of Kuwait, the film traces how everyday rituals — school assignments, river outings, the care of a grandmother and a pet rooster — are reframed by political pressure. The story is observed mostly through Lamia’s wide-eyed point of view and the mischievous companionship of her friend Saeed, giving Hadi a human-sized entry into a large and violent history.

Direction & Screenplay

A debut that balances lyricism and documentary grit

Hadi’s first feature navigates memory and politics with a sure, sensitive hand. He stages scenes so that small domestic gestures — gathering eggs, bargaining for sugar — become charged political acts. The screenplay finds poetry in scarcity, and the director lets images breathe: long takes, natural light, and patient framing turn the film into a lived-in tableau. Hadi’s collaborators include international veterans who lent polish to the script, such as Eric Roth, Chris Columbus, and Marielle Heller, yet the film preserves a rough-edged intimacy that keeps the filmmaker’s personal vantage front and center.

Performances

Nonprofessional truth-tellers who register like revelations

Led by a luminous turn from Baneen Ahmad Nayyef as Lamia and a spirited presence from Sajad Mohamad Qasem as Saeed, the cast brings an immediacy that often transcends conventional acting. Grandmother Bibi’s fierce scenes — particularly a tense standoff at a police station — vibrate with documentary conviction, and the ensemble’s choices feel less rehearsed than lived, which is precisely the film’s strength. Hadi trusts these performers, and the results are moving: childlike curiosity and adult fear coexist on the same faces.

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Cinematography & Design

Rivers, dust, and the texture of memory

The movie (The President’s Cake) makes its landscapes speak: the Tigris River and Euphrates River are not background but active witnesses, their wide, slow surfaces counterpointing burning buildings and political portraits. Digital photography has a film-like grain and deep-focus compositions that allow the viewer to discover details within wide frames. Production design — from faded posters of the president to the rationed groceries on the counter — anchors the period convincingly without resorting to cinematic nostalgia.

Themes & Context

Small acts, large politics

At its heart, the film asks how children come to understand power through chores and ceremonies. The omnipresent image of Saddam Hussein’s face in classrooms and on murals functions as both an absurd backdrop and a coercive symbol; children learn to obey rituals they do not comprehend. Hadi’s view is humane rather than polemical — he captures the strangeness of daily life under a regime and how communities preserve dignity amid enforced performativity. Moments of sentimentality creep in, but the movie usually tethers emotion to tactility rather than melodrama.

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Verdict

A promising debut that feels both intimate and expansive

The President’s Cake is a richly textured first feature: tender, unflashy, and formally confident. It’s a film that rewards patience, the kind of work where a child’s assignment becomes a prism through which history refracts. For viewers interested in contemporary Arabic-language cinema, wartime domestic stories, or films that privilege lived experience over neat historical summation, this is an affecting and memorable piece of filmmaking that announces a singular new voice.

Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ (4/5)