President's Cake screening

POTSDAM -- Cinema 10 screening for 11/2, The President's Cake/Mamlaket al-qasab (Iraq/Qatar/United States, 2025, d. Hasan Hadi, Arabic) 105 min PG-13. Set during the Gulf War, The President’s Cake follows a 9-year-old girl who is selected to bake a cake for Saddam Hussein’s birthday. She sets out on a journey to find all the necessary ingredients… or face a stiff punishment. Filmed mostly in Iraq with untrained actors, the film is the directorial debut of Hasan Hadi, who received the Camera d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Writing for The Globe and Mail, Barry Hertz said, “the film blends a striking sense of street-level realism, political commentary and poetic nostalgia for the naive innocence of youth.” (strong language, some suggestive material and smoking) Films are shown on Monday evenings at 7:15 pm in the Roxy Theater in Potsdam. Tickets are $6.50 general / $55 sharable season or $5.50 student/senior / $45 sharable season (special prices for The Rocky Horror Picture Show.)