My Favourite Cake

Mahin, seventy and living alone in Tehran, fills her days with television and visits from neighbours. One day she breaks the routine, meets a taxi driver her own age and invites him home. Nearly the whole film is that evening: food, wine, music and dancing. Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha tell it less as a romance than as a story about giving yourself permission. The cost in Iran was heavy: the directors were prosecuted over the depiction of the morality police, of women without hijab, and of alcohol, their passports were confiscated, and they could not attend the Berlin premiere in 2024, where their seats were left empty. Who it is for: viewers who follow independent Iranian cinema and want films about desire in old age. Who it is not for: anyone wanting incident, since almost all of this takes place across a single evening.