AFI Fest 2025: Happy Birthday
2025 AFI Fest
Across the globe, strict societal divides due to class persist in countless cultures and settings. For largely arbitrary reasons, projections of power and worth are put onto groups, creating deep-rooted systems of oppression and trauma. Screening as part of the 2025 AFI Film Festival, Sarah Goher's debut feature, Happy Birthday, examines the class divides of Egypt through the eyes of an 8-year-old girl named Toha (Doha Ramadan) who works as the maid for a family of higher status and wealth. While the family, led by matriarch Laila (Nelly Karim), is overall kind and empathetic to Toha, that societal class divide is still as present as ever. This poses an issue as Toha falls in love with the family, dreaming of becoming their daughter. This desire leads Toha to work extra hard, trying to prove her value to the family as she helps them create the best birthday party ever for their daughter, and Toha's friend, Nelly (Khadija Ahmed). As the party approaches, Toha is desperate to attend, but Laila and the family reject the idea due to concerns both from inside and outside the family unit. They worry that they will be judged for letting someone of Toha's social class into the party, and also fear judgment for having a child maid at all. They tell Toha's mother to come get her before the party, making up some excuse as to why she cannot attend to try and protect her feelings, but Toha remains determined and sets off to make it to the party in time.
On multiple levels, Happy Birthday is a marvelous feature that serves both as a larger look at the cruelty of a class system like the one in Egypt, and as a smaller focus on a young girl finding her place in the world and coming to terms with the distinction between fantasy and reality. In the leading role, Ramadan is untouchable as Toha. Adding to an already deep list of notable youth performances of the year so far, Ramadan brings the perfect combination of innocence and longing to her performance, working with the film's screenplay (Goher & Mohamed Diab) to craft a rather complex character and performance. As Toha dreams of becoming a member of this family, there is a layered expression to be found within the escapist dreams of the character.
While Nelly's family is one that projects warmth and love, not to mention an increased economic freedom and access to resources, it is also one that has the privilege of freedom. Due to her social class, Toha's childhood is taken from her. She is forced to work, live in less-than-ideal conditions, and face constant questioning from authorities. Toha alone cannot enter the stores or even dream of participating in society in the way she can when next to Laila, helping her run errands during her day. While Toha gets brief flashes of this freedom during her time working with the family, she is always held back from enjoying it for herself in the way she sees Nelly does. Seeing this fantastical hope slowly meet the reality of the situation is devastating, and Ramadan's emotional control on this journey is beyond impressive.
The film, however, doesn't share this idealistic view of Laila or her family. While her house is a space that might seem overall positive and well-run, these are individuals who choose to engage and reinforce the systems of oppression within their society and are far from innocent or pure. Even if Laila treats Toha well in the context of how many other families would, it still says something about the figure that she would elect to pay for a child maid and put her to any form of work. When push comes to shove and they are no longer able to hide behind excuses, the brutality of the family also comes out in full force, displaying the underbelly of venom and evil that the class system reinforces and is defined by. While the family also carries their own complexities, the film knows where to draw the line to still hold them accountable and reinforce its clear message on the social hierarchy it is challenging.
The story of 2025 in cinema has largely been the power and skill to be found in cinema from across the globe. Happy Birthday joins a growing list, including Cherien Dabis' All That’s Left of You, Alberto Sciamma's CIELO, Bernhard Wenger's Peacock, Oliver Laxe's Sirāt, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke's A Useful Ghost, Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab, and many more international features that immediately overshadow many of the more mainstream productions of the year. For anyone who is dedicated to celebrating the best of 2025 in film, it would be criminal to overlook these gems and the other talents of what the international features of 2025 have to offer. Happy Birthday is an incredibly crafted and emotional feature that brings a needed humanity to a conversation of privilege and societal power, creating a text that is impossible not to walk away from feeling a meaningful impact.
