On Saturday 21 September, there will be a special members' screening of My Favourite Cake, with delicious Persian cake by Naroon. You can book tickets for this here.
Since her husband’s death and her daughter’s departure for Europe, Mahin has been living alone in Tehran, until an afternoon tea with friends leads her to break her solitary routine and revitalise her love life. But as Mahin opens herself up to new romance, what begins as an unexpected encounter quickly evolves into an unpredictable, unforgettable evening.
The Garden Cinema View:
Mahin’s daily routines would seem listless even for Jeanne Dielman (for at least she had potatoes to peel). But when, inspired by her friends, she decides to leave her cocoon of isolated non-existence, she embarks on a gently humorous and surprisingly righteous search for companionship. Eventually encountering taxi driver Faramarz (like a depressed version of Perfect Days’ Kōji Yakusho), My Favourite Cake settles into a kind of septuagenarian spin on Before Sunrise. And it’s wonderful. That is until the filmmakers make a highly controversial narrative choice in the film’s final act. Sure to be a controversial decision, for this viewer a potential modern masterpiece is severely undermined by its ending.