Photo: Virginia Film Festival
The decision to use untrained actors can yield uncertain results. One possible outcome is the kind of ham-fisted, melodramatic overacting that renders a movie unwatchable. Another is cinematic gold.
Such is the case with The President’s Cake. The sometimes humorous drama is a moving story set and shot in Iraq, during the 1990s under the authoritarian rule of Saddam Hussein in the country’s southern wetland region. Two amateur child actors, Baneen Ahmad Nayyef and Sajad Mohamad Qasem, star in the film. Nayyef plays the 9-year-old tasked by her teacher with the impossible demand of baking a cake for Saddam’s birthday during a U.N.-sanctioned era of widespread scarcity.
Writer and director Hasan Hadi made the decision to tell a tale filmed on location in his childhood country, ignoring the difficulties created by shooting and finding on-screen talent there. The 2025 Iraqi/American/Qatari production excels likely due to those constraints, having already won the Audience Award at Cannes and earned submission as the Iraqi entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2026 Oscars.
Hadi told Screen Daily that despite writing a film about such a turbulent time in Iraq’s history—and the possible stigma of having it co-produced by Americans—he remained focused on storytelling. “I didn’t want to make any political statement,” he insists. “I just wanted to show this period that has been impacting Iraq and Iraqis to this very day.” His choice in casting local children demonstrates that impact in ways that perhaps no studied actor ever could. 10/26, Violet Crown Theaters 6 and 7
