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| The President's Cake director Hasan Hadi: 'One of the intentions was that I also wanted to break this fear about shooting a film in Iraq and I’m really glad I had an amazing team who stood by me' Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Directors' Fortnight |
A charmer of a fable that remains rooted in the dangers of the real world, Hasan Hadi’s debut is a strong one. Set in the Nineties, it follows nine-year-old Lamia (the wonderfully expressive Banin Ahmad Nayef), as she finds herself tasked with preparing a cake for her school class for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s birthday. With international sanctions biting hard, getting hold of the ingredients won’t be easy. Hadi takes us on a city odyssey with Lamia, her friend Saeed (Sajad Mohamad Qasem) and her pet cockerel Hindi (a scene-stealer who had his own “Hindi dialogue” courtesy of the sound designer, as Hadi explained to us. There’s a sweet innocence to the children’s relationship that balances the film’s darker moments, and an urgency as Lamia’s gran (Waheed Thabet Khreibat) fights with the authorities to try to find her missing grandchild.
Blackberry, 11.40pm, Film4, Monday, July 6
Jennie Kermode writes: If you're looking for an exciting watch, the story of a one hit wonder tech company might not sound like the best bet, but Blackberry is tremendous fun throughout. Director Matt Johnson and Jay Baruchel star as a pair of techie nerds whose idea has enormous potential but who, before they can make money from it, must somehow explain it to gifted business strategist Jim (a superb Glenn Howerton), who has never even seen Star Wars. At first the culture clash is cute, but as big money gets involved and the stakes continue to rise, Matt anf Jay are horrified that what started out as fun has become exhausting work, whilst Jim feels like he's herding cats. Behind the scenes of the slick company wowing the world, everything is held together by tape and bits of string, constantly at risk of collapse. Handheld camerawork complements this sense of crisis. The editing is nothing short of brilliant. It's energetic, witty, full of surprises, and quite unreasonably funny.
The Farthest, 12.05am, BBC2, Tuesday, July 7
Emer Reynolds' fascinating documentary takes a deep dive into the US Voyager programme – described here as "the science project of the 20th Century". It involved two spacecraft that were sent on a “grand tour” of the fringes of the solar system, with the team aiming for photos of Jupiter and Saturn as a minimum, with Uranus and Neptune also in scope. The film offers a balanced view of the mission and the groundwork that went into it with the experts chosen proving adept at explaining things in layman’s terms. Details of the Golden Record, which was made to offer a snapshot of 55 languages and a lot more from Earth for any alien who happened to be scooting by, are also woven in. Not just a scientific consideration but one that broadens into philosophical and emotional spaces.
Blade Runner, BBC iPlayer streaming now
I’m not entirely sure how I missed the fact that Ridley Scott’s “Final Cut” version of this stone cold classic was showing on Sunday, but here we are – and surely better late than never? This particular version was around seven years in the making, including reshoots and a lot of additional technical bells and whistles. The plot, of course, remains the same as Deckard (Harrison Ford at the peak of his powers, who was cast after actors including Dustin Hoffman had turned down the role) has his retirement curtailed in order to bring a rather more permanent sort of retirement to a group of renegade work android ‘replicants’. Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), Leon (Brion James), Pris (Daryl Hannah) and their leader Batty (Rutger Hauer) are, meanwhile, set on extending their lives beyond their four-year programming. Admittedly this loses something on a smaller screen but there’s a lot that has been gained from the tweaks, and Vangelis’ soundtrack has lost none of its power down the years.
Elvis, 11.10pm, Thursday, July 9
Austin Butler had his ears pinned back by prosthetics to play the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Baz Luhrman’s polished biopic – and you’ll be wanting to pin your own back to enjoy his charismatic musical performances throughout. The film tracks the superstar from his early years when he was “discovered” by Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks, who gets to lean into a less than savoury character for once), charting the way their relationship soured down the decades. In essence an origin story, it articulates the Black roots behind Elvis’ success, while offering a showcase for Butler’s skills and Luhrman’s customary excess all areas approach.
Shayda, Film4, 12.55am, Friday, July 10
Zar Amir Ebrahimi, perhaps best known internationally for Holy Spider, puts in a heartfelt performance in Noora Niasari’s drama, which considers the lasting trauma of domestic abuse. She plays Iranian migrant mum Shayda, who is making a fresh start with her young daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia) in Australia after leaving her violent husband (Osamah Sami). Her attempts to move on via a woman’s shelter are complicated by Hossein, who uses his custodial visits with Mona to continue to exercise control and fear. Niasari is a survivor of domestic abuse herself and draws on her own experiences for this nuanced drama that celebrates the strength of those like her.
Oppenheimer, 10pm, BBC2, Sunday, July 12
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is due for release this month, and here’s a chance to catch up with his Oscar-winning biopic. It details the development of the atomic bomb via the life of Robert Oppenheimer (played with intensity by Cillian Murphy). Whether the film needs to be quite as structurally convoluted is definitely debatable but Nolan does like that sort of thing and you can't argue with the beautifully recreated period detail and the supporting performances from Robert Downey Jr and Emily Blunt, among others.
We’re returning to documentary for this week’s short selection – Stolen Fish, which charts the impact of the opening of an enormous fishmeal plant in The Gambia, which, unsurprisingly, has not been good.
