https://www.chelmsford-filmclub.co.uk/2026/09/22/audience-reaction-to-the-presidents-cake/ An independent film society based in Chelmsford, Essex. Tue, 22 Sep 2026 13:15:35 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.1 https://www.chelmsford-filmclub.co.uk/2026/09/22/audience-reaction-to-the-presidents-cake/#comment-1382 Tue, 22 Sep 2026 13:15:35 +0000 https://www.chelmsford-filmclub.co.uk/?p=6935#comment-1382 For historical context:
The 1st Iraqi War ended on 28 February 1991 and Saddam Hussein’s birthday was 28 April, so I am assuming the planes that were flying overhead (and the bombing of the school at the end of the film) were Iraqi, rather than US forces. The film was set amongst the people of the southern marshlands of Iraq, which were systematically destroyed between 1991 and 1994 (with massive engineering and drainage projects between 1997-2000 which obliterated the marshlands entirely).
Additionally, the scenes of Saddam Hussein’s 50th birthday celebrations (with the obscenely large cake behind him) would have been 1987 – before the war, and the start of International sanctions.

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