The directors of the praised Forgiveness / ballad of a white cow (2021), returned in 2024 to the official competition of the Berlinale with their second feature film in common, which now opens in 10 Argentine rooms.
Premiere 04/24/2025
Published on 04/22/2025
Un pastel para dos (Keyke mahboobe manaka / My Favourite CakeIran/2024). Screenplay and address: Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeha. Cast: Lili Farhadpour, Esmaeel Mehrabi and Mohammad Heidari. Photography: Mohamad Hadadi. Edition: At Mehrad and Behtash Sanaeha. Distributor: look. Duration: 97 minutes. Suitable for over 13 years. Salas (First Week): 10 (Multiplex Belgrano, Cinépolis Recoleta, Showcase Belgrano Atlas Patio Bullrich, Lorca, Cinema Art Cacodelphia, North Showcase, Cinema Paradiso de la Plata, Cinema Art Córdoba and Cinemas of the Center of Rosario).
It is not usual for cinema to take care of the elderly, in this case of the misadventures of a lonely septuagenarian, but even less that Iranian cinema does, which is usually subject to rigid controls and even severe censorship codes.
Therefore, we are going to give ourselves the freedom to include in this review the statement of the two filmmakers: “In a society where being a woman means living under surveillance and repression, this film tells the story of Mahin, a woman who decides to live alone and, thus, challenge the norms imposed by a patriarchal culture. Secretly shot during the beginnings of the woman’s movement, life, freedom and in the midst of mourning by Mahsa Jina Amini, the film became an act of resistance and commitment to truth. Beyond personal and legal risks, both we and our leading actress decided to cross the red lines of censorship to show a reality that is rarely allowed in Iranian cinema. This work is a tribute to the women who resist, to the hope that freedom persists that, even in the most hostile contexts, continues to seek their voice. ”
Now, that same statement from the creators of Forgiveness / ballad of a white cow You can also play against at the time of the film assessment from the West. Why? Because what in Iran today can be seen as a provocative, uncomfortable and even subversive film, here does not acquire those dimensions when reading. It is true that in Argentina and in several other countries the rights of women are being placed in dispute from the speeches and actions of governments, but that a 70 -year -old woman lives alone, tries to get out of her gray routine and transcend her foreseeable existence is not so exceptional or disruptive. The story of Mahin (Lili Farhadpour), therefore, can be enjoyed from a more intimate, more human perspective, but not so much from the political dimension that the directors obviously wanted to give it.
Mahin, like most of her friends who invites a meal at home, has been a widow and her daughter has settled in Europe with her family (her already her grandson, therefore, sees them little and only by video call). Look soap operas, weaves, it makes purchases, but there is very little to take it out of a routine life. Until Amamarz appears on the scene (Esmaeel Mehrabi) and the possibility of love challenging tragic synos and social mandates hits his door.
It is not convenient to advance anything how that relationship develops, but even in the terms of an “autumn” love, the film is unmarked from the demagogic and complicating resolutions to be a film for moments uncomfortable and in others, endearing, with always as a loring protagonists. In Iran, it can generate extreme reactions, but for the rest of the world it also has a scope and a moral of a universal nature.
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