Ein Kuchen für den Präsidenten

Iraq in the 1990s. While dictator Saddam Hussein has his birthday celebrated nationwide despite widespread hardship and shortages, nine-year-old Lamia draws a dreaded lot at school: she is tasked with baking the cake for the local festivities. It is an almost impossible assignment, as food is scarce throughout the country—especially eggs, sugar, and flour. Yet she must succeed, or her family will face severe punishment.

With only two days’ time, the help of her classmate Saeed, and accompanied by her rooster Hindi, she sets off to the nearest city to procure the ingredients. What follows is an adventurous quest through a world of uncertainty and deprivation, but also of small miracles, in which Lamia repeatedly encounters moments of humor, friendship, and hope.

With his debut film, Hadi revisits his own childhood in the hauntingly beautiful marshlands of southern Iraq, telling the story with a non-professional cast in which young Baneen Ahmed Nayyef shines above all. Her heart, optimism, and understated humor carry the journey of young Lamia, who refuses to give up and forges her own path against all odds in a male-dominated world.