Love is an intimidating adventure at any age but for 70-year-old widow Mahin age isn’t her only concern; navigating relationships in post-Revolution Iran is a whole other kettle of fish.
Yet, luck is in her favour and she meets fellow single pensioner and taxi driver Faramarz at the local old folks diner. Together, they spend a night relishing the liberations of the past, opening doors they hadn’t even peaked behind since the Revolution- and rediscovering love.
Warming and insightful, My Favourite Cake is more than a movie about self-exploration. It’s about embracing the cards you’ve been dealt with and using your hand to win what you can. For Mahin and Faramarz, this is about savouring love where you can find it.
The Persian film has an intimate beauty to it. Set largely in Mahin’s home, with a handful of her other regular haunting grounds appearing, the film is focused and personal. The home itself is very well put together; it has a rustic charm that befits the film and Mahin’s personality.
Lili Farhadpour does an impeccable job at making Mahin real. She is funny (especially when sitting around a table with her gal-pals), down-to-earth and has a knowledge of the world around her. She is captivating. Of course, Mahin’s charm is woven into the script. However, it’s Farhadpour’s warmth that makes the character transcend loveable; she is familial.
Esmaeel Mehrabi, who plays Faramarz, also brings an uncle-esque charm to his character. His bashfulness and sincerity create the ‘sweet, lonely pensioner’ persona that makes Faramarz a bachelor to root for.
The characters, however, aren’t just cutesy and two-dimensional. Their history and experience of life pre and post-Islamic Revolution gives them resilience and reverence. Enforced hijabs and Morality Police prosecution are their present reality- before, they drank wine and wore low-dip dresses. My Favourite Cake delicately explores this cultural difference and the attitudes of the elderly, who lived a life with more social and legal rights.
Ageing and loneliness as an empty nester; loss of liberation and sociality- My Favourite Cake displays the desire of the elderly to be seen, to walk among the world like they did when they were young. It addresses the young and carefree stereotype by uplifting the narrative that pensioners can, too, be wild, rebellious, and free.
My Favourite Cake will make you laugh. It’ll also, undoubtedly, make you cry. See this film, brag about it, and watch it again with those you bragged to. This film is an experience that is worth sharing.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival runs from August 15-21. Tickets and showings are available here. Brig’s coverage of the film festival can be found here.
Feautre image credit: Totem Films