'The President's Cake'

Source: Films Boutique

‘The President’s Cake’

EXCLUSIVE: Films Boutique has boarded world sales on Hasan Hadi’s Iraqi debut feature The President’s Cake, which was selected for Cannes sidebar Directors’ Fortnight earlier this month.

Written by Hadi, the film is set in 1990s Iraq and follows nine-year-old Lamia, who is selected for the intimidating role of baking Saddam Hussein’s birthday cake. She must use her wits and imagination to gather the ingredients to make the mandatory cake, or face the consequences.

Filmed entirely in Iraq, the Iraq-US-Qatar co-production is produced by US producer Leah Chen Baker, whose credits include Sundance 2022 feature Palm Trees and Power Lines. Executive producers include Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth, and director Marielle Heller. The film is made in association with Missing Piece Films, Working Barn Productions, Maiden Voyage Films and Spark Features.

Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Sajad Mohamad Qasem, Waheed Thabet Khreibat and Rahim AlHaj lead the cast.

The President’s Cake received a production grant from the Doha Film Institute’s 2023 fall funding round, and participated in its Qumra development lab this month as a ‘post-production – feature narrative’ – picture lock title.

New York-based Hadi is a graduate of the city’s Tisch School of the Arts where he received the Dean’s Fellowship. He is a 2022 Sundance Institute Screenwriting and Directing Fellow and recipient of the 2022 Sundance Institute NHK award. His further acknowledgements include the Gotham-Marcie Bloom Fellowship, the Black Family Production Prize, the Sloan Foundation Production Award, and the BAFTA Newcomers Program.

He has previously directed shorts including 2021’s Swimsuit, and worked as a sound recordist and editor.

Films Boutique launched Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig in Cannes Competition last year, with the Iranian film going on to receive an Oscar nomination for best international film. The company’s line-up includes Sundance titles Peter Hujar’s Day, DJ Ahmet and Where The Wind Comes From, Vivian Qu’s Berlinale competition title Girls On Wire and Milko Lazarov’s Tarika, which will play alongside DJ Ahmet in the independent Cannes Ecrans Junior sidebar.

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