For those of us still in the afterglow/afterburn of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival world of cinematic wonder, the spirit of having “seen the world” through film still lingers. That spirit continues to have a regular home at the SBI FF screens at the Riviera and the McHurley Film Center, including the uniquely impressive Iraqi film The President’s Cake.
Part of the buzz about this alternately heartwarming and heartbreaking child's-eye story is the rarity of its source country. For one, it was the first Iraqi film to screen at the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious “Director’s Fortnight” and has been lavished with glowing critical praise. And yet the film is anything but an esoteric or edgy film experience. It almost qualifies as an accessible, “bring the family” brand movie (“movie” versus “film”) while also proudly being blessed with artful crafting.
Writer-director Hasan Hadi has created a chronicle of a nation in the grips of a harsh regime and reality, but a tale leavened by the absurdity of a despot’s whims and a sly humor, embedded in the film’s very premise and title. The film takes us to Iraq in 1990, after the Kuwait conflagration had resulted in U.S. bombs on Baghdad, and the seeds were sown for our “WMD-” driven war waged in 2001. We feel the atmosphere of sanctions-imposed desperation and subservience to the despotic Saddam Hussein, who, despite his country being in dire straits, demands his 50th birthday be honored with a nationwide bounty of birthday cake presentations. (Actual footage of Saddam’s birthday celebration, with “happy birthday” performed creepily on repeat, is a tragicomic touch in the film).