A girl, a boy and a rooster and a cake for Saddam
Daniel Nelson
“Cutesy and naive” or “beautifully shot and haunting”? Contrasting reviews in Letterboxd for The President’s Cake illustrate how critics and audiences vary so much in their reactions to films.
The enthusiastic review for this film about nine-year-old Lamia, whose martinet schoolteacher has instructed her to bring a cake to mark Saddam Hussein’s birthday, says the audience feels as though they are in the child’s shoes and experience what life was like in 1990s Iraq.
The withering critic dismisses it as a Western-funded arthouse product that’s been done 120 times before.
Perhaps — and here I display my colours as a lefty Western compromiser — both attitudes are partly correct.
Yes, I have seen many films presenting a child’s-eye-view of the wonders and dangers of a big city after becoming detached from parent or, in this case, grandparent. Lamia’s innocence collides with creepy, greedy adults, as well as meeting some better versions of humanity,
The cuteness quotient is raised by the fact she shares her adventures with her pet rooster, Hindi, and by a socially despised but energetic and resourceful classmate, eight-year-old Saeed.
Yes, it’s sweet and the rougher side of life is intimated and side-stepped rather than overtly exposed, but it’s also engaging, hugely entertaining and has moments of real depth.
And yes, there’s Hollywood money behind it, but director Hasan Hadi grew up in southern Iraq, during wartime, and he has an eye and ear for Iraqi attitudes, conversations and relationships, including casual police corruption and sexist attitudes (not unique to Iraq, of course, but it’s always fascinating to see their local manifestations).
It also has some lovely camerawork, not least the bewitching shots in the marshes that Saddam Hussein tried to drain and destroy after the 1991 uprisings.
Most audiences will be enchanted, while getting insight into the ubiquity of Saddam Hussein’s portrait and the everyday difficulties of life under sanctions. The details illuminate and beguile.