The President's Cake
A Film by Hasan Hadi
2025 - Iraq/USA/Qatar - Drama - 105 min.
with Baneen Ahmed Nayyef , Sajad Mohamad Qasem & Waheed Thabet Khreibat
Language: Arabic
While people across 1990s Iraq struggle to survive the war and food shortages, Saddam Hussein requires each school in the country to prepare a cake to celebrate his birthday. Despite her efforts to avoid getting picked, 9-year-old Lamia is chosen among her classmates. The young girl must now use her wits and imagination to gather ingredients for the mandatory cake or face the consequences.
Directors’
Fortnight
People's Choice Award
Best First
Feature
Official Selection
Iraqi Entry
Official Selection
More Films
Silent Friend
A film by Ildiko Enyedi
2025 - Germany/Hungary/France - Drama - 147 min.
In the heart of a botanical garden in a medieval university town in Germany stands a majestic ginkgo tree. This silent witness has observed over a century the quiet rhythms of transformation across three human lives.
2020, a neuroscientist from Hong Kong, exploring the mind of babies, begins an unexpected experiment with the old tree.
1972, a young student is profoundly changed by the simple act of observing and connecting with a geranium.
1908, the university’s first female student discovers, through the lens of photography, sacred patterns of the universe hidden within the humblest of plants.
We follow their clumsy, awkward attempts to connect — each one of them deeply rooted in their own present - as they are transformed by the quiet, enduring, and mysterious power of nature. The ancient ginkgo tree brings us closer to what it means to be human — to our longing to belong.
Beyond the Walls
A film by David Lambert
2012 - Belgium/Canada/France - Drama - DCP - 2.35 - 98 min.
Paulo, a young pianist living an ambivalent life with Anka, meets Ilir, a loner bass player.
It’s love at first sight and they start living on love alone.
The day Paulo promises to love him for life, Ilir leaves town for a concert, and never comes back…
The Buriti Flower
A film by Joao Salaviza & Renée Nader Messora
2023 - Brazil/Portugal - Drama - 1.66 - 124 min.
Through her child’s eyes, Patpro will go through three periods of the history of her indigenous people, in the heart of the Brazilian forest. Tirelessly persecuted, but guided by their ancestral rites, their love of nature and their fight to preserve their freedom, the Krahô never stop inventing new forms of resistance.



