So few movies explore the love lives of anyone who isn’t in their 20s and living in the US or UK, so it is so refreshing to watch My Favourite Cake, a movie about Mahin, a 70-year-old woman in Iran looking for a new spark in her love life 30 years after her husband passed away. With the backdrop of the oppressive Iranian government forcing women to wear hijabs and disallowing them to meet men alone, it expresses romance as a way to resist an inhumanely restrictive police force and society.
After her annual afternoon tea with her friends, Mahin realises love has been sorely missed in her life for several decades, and meets Faramarz, a jolly mustached taxi driver whom she invites in her home for the best night of either of their lives. Lili Farhadpour and Esmaeel Mehrabi, who play Mahin and Faramarz, have wonderful chemistry and will have you instantly invested in their budding romance as they reminisce about past loves and their favourite music. The film beautifully portrays domestic romance over the course of one night, making simple conversation and enjoying one-another’s company the most wonderful thing in the world. I do have to tiptoe around certain plot points that I would be remiss to spoil, and while it is a shame I can’t delve into every detail of this movie, it is truly something to be experienced in the moment.
My Favourite Cake, 2024. Directed by Maryam Moghadam, Behtash Sanaeeha.
My Favourite Cake was met with controversy upon release, since it is critical of the Iranian government, and upon travelling to Berlin for the film’s premiere the film’s directors, Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha had their passports seized by authorities and they were disallowed from leaving the country. While extremely disheartening, it serves to strengthen the film’s message, and brings more attention to the filmmakers and what they’re trying to accomplish.
Portraying love as a way to fight back against social norms is a classic trope, but no film has done this better in the modern day than My Favourite Cake. As compelling as the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets is, having a real oppressive regime lingering around the corner, waiting to drive the characters apart makes for such a raw expression of humanity and love and serves as a reminder of what so many women have to live through constantly. My Favourite Cake is a slice-of-life film and is a must-see this year, if only to witness one of the best whirlwind romances put to screen in a long time. It is screening at Perth Festival from the 2nd to the 8th of December, and I hope everyone goes to see it purely so I can talk to you about the things I had to leave out here.