My Favorite Cake

Seventy-year-old widow Mahin spends most of her sleepless nights glued to multiple soap operas that she watches on her TV while sitting in her beautifully furnished apartment that is in the suburbs of Tehran, as opposed to other places where her friends live. Two things entertain her the most, one is taking care of her gorgeous garden which without a doubt is excellent. My Favorite Cake is a 2024 Iranian romantic comedy directed by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha. The film follows Mahin, a 70-year-old widow in Tehran, who, amidst loneliness, seeks companionship and a renewed zest for life. Her journey is both heartwarming and subtly rebellious, challenging societal norms regarding age and romance.

Protected from her upstairs neighbor, who lives on the upper side and their other is indulging in her favorite soap operas, yes her neighbor is quite the nosy woman. This is the case because her husband works for the Iranian government and is conservative, due to these factors, her assumption is that such behavior in their building can be reported.

Mahin gets to reminisce about the friendship she enjoyed in her youth while conversing with her children and grandchildren after all, it has been thirty years since her husband’s passing. All of Mahin’s friends are widowed and want to discover more about life after marriage, which leads to some very interesting discussions over the dinner she has crafted on that cheerful occasion. One of Mahin’s friends was particularly harsh, stating “It makes no sense to wed a man. He only comes in handy to do repairs” which Mahin didn’t quite agree on.

Still, as the tea was enlivening the geeky atmosphere, some of Mahin’s friends began talking about their secret boyfriends who advised Mahin to find a companion if not a husband. Many of her friends’ life journeys sparked her curiosity, while she managed to stay silent. And now, when it comes to getting ready for the soap opera, she went on to try many of the nice dresses her daughter would send her throughout the years, along with the makeup, manicure, and hair care.

According to me, the strongest facet of the entire film lies in the reunion of septuagenarians. Their interaction is laden with humor and is so full of positivity that it gives leeway into happy endings. I must say, she is brilliant, the actress who stepped into the shoes of Mahin’s best friend, the hypochondriac Poorna whose ailments are too many for her to keep quiet about (she claims to carry a videotape of her colonoscopy which she wanted to show to everybody). Pouran is the only one who is not participating in conversations about love as she fears the next sickness marking her end.

In a society where the issue with finding someone to settle down with does not lie with their age, but the gender norms and the strictness to a code of morality, where the so-called morality police walk through the borders of the open streets to arrest those that don’t wear their hijabs or appropriate clothing, even unmarried seniors of the opposite genders are not allowed to be together, it is apparent that Mahin is wrong. This does not prevent Mahin from visiting different places looking for a possible husband.

And she is part of the cohort of women who walked freely in all kinds of dresses including trousers and who would participate in concerts and also spend time on the beach in swimwear. That life that existed before the Islamic revolution is what gives her the strength to fight the young girls in the park who act as the morality police and even suggest to one of them how to do it later during fights.

In “My Favorite Cake,” the main protagonist is finally set free from her disappointing journey of looking for a husband. After visiting distinct locations she once used to frequent as a coffee place in the Hyatt, which disappointingly nullifies her ability to order without having to scan a code, when cringingly asked to do so, she finds herself taken back by how there seems to be a complete void of people. One of the select few locations where she can utilize the food vouchers supplied for pensioners is where she spots a solitary male named Faramarz(Esamail Mehrabi).

who seemingly does not sit with a group of four men even though he appears to be familiar with them. When asked if they are wealthy enough to eat out for each day while being surrounded by men who are being cooked for, Faramarz replies by saying he does not have someone who cooks for him, and Mahin the amateur chef feels butterflies out of fusion to the man she does not even know.

Determined and full of excitement, Mahin will try to locate Faramarz in the taxi while at the company during work hours, foster boldness, and ask him to visit her flat.

Drinking wine that she has kept hidden in her kitchen for ages, laughing, singing, and dancing together, and taking a shower while fully dressed and sitting down on the bathroom floor because of the alcohol’s effects these blissful moments will end all too soon. Before that, however, Mahin a shy and overweight woman who is insecure about her body, receives kind of compliments about her appearance which she most likely has never been given before. In the movie, the love birds really do shine up, specifically due to their on-screen chemistry, supported by the magic of the camera work, courtesy of Mo Type in Hadadi.

In the program, it was the only Iranian film screen Murat Skilled to Red Lotus Asian Film Festival as part of the screening in Vienna.

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