Film Review; 'My Favourite Cake'

 This film is a fine confection. Having seen it and enjoyed it, I find it predictable that the authorities in the film maker's native Iran are not letting it be shown there. At one level it is a feminist take on the gender dividing rules by which Iran operates where women, particularly elderly widowed women, can meet and share meals with each other in each others houses, and elderly men can meet together socially, usually set apart from women. But rarely can single mature widows meet mature men, often divorcees and widowers, socially. 

  The film seems puzzling at first, and then proceeds to engage with the viewer by seeming to be almost casual. This is how 'slow cinema' works. The further on the plot proceeds the more the film becomes a Hitchcock style romantic thriller, as it would play out if Fay Weldon had written the script. To tell you what happens would be wrong of me. It is one of those films where the reviews have to be opaque about the plot, to preserve the surprises for the viewer about how the plot evolves.

  The pace and acting in the film seem natural and entirely believable. This film is led by actors in their seventies who are acting their age. The script is quite detailed and precise, with the location shooting in some ordinary looking Iranian city suburb adding to the atmosphere. Also whilst the film is slow it is smoothly and tautly edited.

 If this film has a point to make, a target, then that target is the Iranian interpretation of Islam where how women can dress and engage in public life is more advantageous to men than women. But the rules are explained as being 'for the protection of women'. The film explores what the rules are, and who the rules benefit vs who they are said to protect.  

  I can heartily recommend this film to the legions of fans of films that have to have subtitles.