Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience

'Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience', the debut film by Iraqi director Hasan Hadi, is set in Iraq in the late 1990s, during the period of international sanctions and under the authoritarian regime of Saddam Hussein. The story follows a girl who lives with her grandmother in a humble rural village, where food scarcity, constant fear, and state surveillance are part of everyday life. One day, the school announces that one of the students will be chosen to prepare a cake for the president's birthday, a mandatory gesture of loyalty to the regime. When the girl is selected, what should be a celebration turns into an almost impossible mission.

Accompanied by her grandmother, the protagonist embarks on a journey through the village in search of basic ingredients like flour, sugar, or eggs, facing extreme poverty, distrust among neighbors, and the omnipresent presence of the authorities. Each encounter reveals a society marked by silence, forced obedience, and fear of reprisals. Through the childlike perspective of its protagonist, the film shows how political power invades even the most intimate and everyday gestures.

With a sober and humanistic tone, 'The President's Cake' is a poignant portrait of the loss of innocence and the resilience of those trying to maintain their dignity amidst oppression, using a minimal story to reflect a deeply suffocating historical and social reality.