THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE
Rating: CTC
Duration: 102 mins
Director: Hasan Hadi
Cast: Banin Ahmad, Nayef Sajad, Mohamad Qasem, Waheed Thabet, Khreibat Rahim, AlHaj Muthanna Malaghi
Genre: Drama
Language: Arabic with English subtitles
Opens: FEB 26
Iraq’s official submission for Best International Feature Film for the 98th Academy Awards.
A young girl is tasked with baking a cake to celebrate Saddam Hussein’s birthday in this playful fable that won two awards at Cannes including the Caméra d’Or.
In 1990, nine-year-old Lamia lives with her grandmother Bibi and her beloved cockerel Hindi in Iraq’s Mesopotamian marshes. Harsh international sanctions have sent basic living costs skyrocketing; but even though his people are hungry, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein still demands that the nation celebrate his birthday, replete with a lavish cake. Assigned to bake such a cake for her local school – with severe consequences if she fails – Lamia teams up with her pal Saeed to undertake an odyssey of procuring flour, eggs and sugar in a place where they’re in desperately short supply.
Telling a timely tale of life under a dictatorship as seen through the eyes of a child, Hadi’s film draws from neighbouring Iran’s cinematic tradition of symbolic stories led by young protagonists.
I saw this at MIFF last year and it was one of the highlights of the Festival – highly recommended.
FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER
Rating: M (Coarse language)
Duration: 111 mins
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps
Genre: Drama, comedy
Opens: APR 02
What a long career Jim Jarmusch has enjoyed, and always to garner interesting actors for his small, quirky and insightful stories. Three stories concerning the relationships between adult children, their somewhat distant parents, and each other: a reclusive father visited by his grown children in the US, sisters visiting their novelist mother in Dublin, and adult twins called back to their Paris apartment to address a family tragedy.
IT’S NEVER OVER, JEFF BUCKLEY
Rating: CTC
Duration: 106 mins
Director: Amy Berg
Cast: Jeff Buckley, Mary Guibert, Ben Harper, Aimee Mann
Genre: Documentary, music
Opens: APR 30
Academy Award nominee Amy Berg famously made the Catholic Church expose Deliver us from Evil. Now she brings that film making skill to a much softer, moving and heartfelt story of rising musician Jeff Buckley. After only releasing one album he tragically died suddenly in 1997. Now, never-before-seen footage, exclusive voice messages, and accounts from those closest to him offer a portrait of the captivating singer.
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2
Rating: CTC
Duration: 123 mins
Director: David Frankel
Cast: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Kenneth Branagh, Simone Ashley
Genre: Comedy, drama
Opens: APR 30
Wow – can you believe the original Devil Wears Prada movie came out 20 years ago!!! This is one sequel I was jolly excited to hear about and can’t wait…. Gosh, how many times have I watched the original? A dozen at least, must be more… Miranda Priestly navigates her career amid the decline of traditional magazine publishing. She faces off against Emily Charlton, her one-time assistant, now a high-powered executive for a luxury group, with advertising dollars that Priestly desperately needs. Check out the trailer, Meryl Streep is just aloofly ruthless, deliciously so…
