A miraculously charming, tender story whose protagonists are 9 year old Lamia and her 8yr old schoolmate, Saeed. They are part of the impoverished marshland community in 1990s Iraq, a time when the President, Saddam Hussein, is kingpin and to disagree or dishonour him was punishable by death. It’s his 50th birthday and the teacher at Lamia’s school has proclaimed that lots will be drawn to decide who will have the honour of baking a special cake to mark the occasion.  This task falls to Lamia.  For her and her elderly grandmother, a seemingly impossible one. Aided and abetted by Saeed and accompanied by Lamia’s pet cockerel, Hindi, their frantic search for the cake’s ingredients brings them all sorts of troubles and where we get to meet some of the unsavoury characters they have to outwit. A film of international acclaim, revealing with the lightest of touch the morally devasting consequences of a despotic regime.

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