THE STORY – Eight-year-old maid Toha goes to great lengths to ensure that her best friend Nelly, the daughter of her wealthy employer, has a successful birthday party in this poignant debut feature exploring classism in modern-day Cairo.
THE CAST – Nelly Karim, Hanan Motawie, Hanan Youssef & Doha Ramadan
THE TEAM – Sarah Goher (Director/Writer) & Mohamed Diab (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 95 Minutes
“What’s a wish?” It’s a question you might expect from a child just learning to speak, but Toha (Doha Ramadan) is eight, just like the friend she poses the question to. Nelly (Khadheeja Ahmed) is talking about her birthday wishes, which always come true, so she replies that a wish is “something you want that comes true.” Wishes are much more complicated than that, though, and Toha – who just so happens to be working as a live-in maid in Nelly’s household – is about to learn that very adult lesson.
Sarah Goher’s debut feature, “Happy Birthday,” has a lot to recommend, but nothing more so than its lead performance. As Toha, Ramadan is a marvel, capturing the character’s precociousness without ever coming across as overly cute or like she’s mugging for the audience. Toha is a born salesman (or, less generously, a born liar), so she can turn it up when she needs to, but Ramadan never overdoes it, nailing the tone of a young girl wise beyond her years who knows how to manipulate adults to get what she wants. There’s still a lot about the world that Toha doesn’t know or understand, though, and neither Ramadan nor the film itself lets you forget that.
Toha and Nelly stayed up late preparing invitations and decorating a dress for the latter’s birthday party. The next morning, though, Nelly’s mother (Nelly Karim) tells them that there’s not going to be a party because they’re moving. Desperate for a wish of her own, Toha gets Nelly to agree to save one candle for her to blow out if she can get her a party, then manipulates both of Nelly’s parents to get it. Largely silent and unseen as the house’s maid, the adults say a lot of things around Toha that they wouldn’t say around Nelly, so the audience picks up scraps of information, like how Nelly’s father moved out some time ago but her parents haven’t gotten a divorce just yet. Goher’s screenplay, co-written with Mohamed Diab, leaves just as much unsaid, though, which can become frustrating as the film goes on and specific facts reveal themselves and others don’t. The arrangement that has ended up in Nelly being this family’s maid is hinted at from several angles but never fully explained; perhaps it’s a cultural thing that Egyptians would understand, but to an international audience, it doesn’t make much sense.
That’s the only real issue with the film, though, which divides neatly into thirds exploring Toha’s work life, home life, and what happens when they both collide at Nelly’s birthday party. The modern cleanliness of Nelly’s home and the outdoor mall where her mom takes Toha shopping for party supplies (and a dress to make her husband jealous) may throw Western audiences off-guard, but watching Toha in the environment shows that while she what to do around the house, she’s not as experienced in other areas. The film plays around with expectations, having Nelly’s mom angrily leave a store that won’t let Toha try on a dress and have her pretend to be her daughter in the next store, only to rip that fantasy away when they get back home. For ill-defined reasons, Toha gets sent home before the party, leaving her confused and upset. It’s at this point that we see the more cinematically familiar side of Cairo – all dirt roads and tuk-tuks and small clay boxes of houses too close together. The contrast between the two sides of the city is stark, and Goher finds the most heartbreaking ways to show it, from Toha’s demeaning experiences at the gate of Nelly’s compound community to her mother’s insistence that she share what little she has with her many siblings. Toha lives in a cruel world where little makes sense, partly because that’s the way of the world and partly because the adults in her life won’t explain things to her. It’s a frustrating but also compelling viewing experience, wanting more for Toha but knowing that if she goes to that party, she’s in for some form of a rude awakening.
When that moment finally comes, it’s a heartstopper. Ramadan puts many adult actors to shame with her performance, a quiet implosion captured in one long take that rivals the final shot of “Call Me By Your Name” for emotional impact and display of performative skill. It’s such a perfect ending that the film’s other issues are instantly forgiven. The simplicity with which Goher displays the many complexities of class in modern Cairo admirably gives the film a childlike quality without fully immersing itself in a child’s eye view, a difficult feat to accomplish but one that pays dividends. “Happy Birthday” ends with the perfect question: After all she’s learned about the society around her, what could Toha possibly wish for? The answer, heartbreaking as it is, leaves you wanting to do better for the Tohas of the world, and there’s nothing more noble that a film could do.
