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Iranian cinema returns as a protagonist at the Berlinale: after having won three Golden Bears in the last fifteen years (“A Separation” in 2011, “Taxi Tehran” in 2015 and “Evil Does Not Exist” in 2020), one of the artistically busiest in the world is still in competition at the German festival with “My Favorite Cake”, the third feature film by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha.
The two had already been competing in Berlin in 2021 with “Ballad of a White Cow”, a film focused on the theme of justice in Iran, while this time they focus on telling the character of Mahin, a seventy-year-old woman, who lives alone in Tehran. Her husband died in an accident thirty years earlier, while her daughter left the country with her new family. While wandering around the city, Mahin enters a restaurant and runs into a man of her own age, only as her, whom he will invite to his home to spend a few hours together. What initially seems like a somewhat monotonous portrait of an existence like many others, soon turns into an incisive film, capable of proposing different social and political dynamics of the current Iranian situation , taking as an example the life of an elderly woman who will try to reopen her heart after a long time.
The female condition
Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha in fact choose an individual case to talk about something much more universal, inherent to numerous issues of their native country: from the female condition to having to justify any type of relationship, both between very young people and between people of a certain age .
An emotionally touching film
Especially in the central part, when we witness the magical evening that the two protagonists are spending, the emotional level grows out of all proportion, managing to involve the audience well in the events that are told. The twist towards the conclusion is rather predictable, but the film it can be said to be equally successful, thanks to the remarkable construction of the two characters, well written and well interpreted. Among the moments to remember, a beautiful dance sequence where, amidst the touching of bodies, lurks all the desire to overcome the rules – of life and the laws of the country – trying to really go back to living at least for a few hours.
“My Favorite Cake” is yet another confirmation that Iranian cinema is one of the most important of contemporary times, thanks to its ability to represent the urgency of messages even in a delicate way, with the awareness that sometimes just a few words can be enough to shake and a few well-placed gestures.