We like to believe that we're all equal. We like to think that opportunity exists for all and that with enough hard work it'll all work out. We like to believe that relationships alone will somehow level the playing field.
We like to believe these things, but deep down we know they're not actually true.
Directed by Sarah Goher from a script co-written with Mohamed Diab, Happy Birthday is a quiet little masterpiece of a film that somehow weaves a majestic tapestry of hardship, heartbreak, whimsy, and childlike innocence all into a story that resonates deeply andcomes vividly to life thanks to the radically compassionate performances of the film's mighty fine ensemble.
The film centers around Toha (Doha Ramadan), an eight-year-old maid and a friend of sorts to Nelly (Khadija Ahmed), the daughter of her employer. It is almost a magical touch that Happy Birthday is centered around something as fundamental as a child's birthday party. In this case, it's Nelly who's about to turn nine-years-old. Initially resistant to any sort of celebration, Nelly's mother Laila (Nelly Karim) is swayed by the gentle nudges of Toha's wide-eyed innocence and her own daughter's deep longing. Toha's day is spent alongside Laila preparing for a festive celebration she herself has likely never experienced, though in each moment we are reminded, in big and small ways, that Toha and Nelly live wildly different lives even in their most common moments.
Having picked up both the Best International Narrative Feature Award and the Nora Ephron Award at Tribeca, Happy Birthday now arrives at Indy's Heartland International Film Festival for its Midwest premiere. It is a film that should be remembered as it's hard to fathom a better international feature in 2025. In a mere 90 minutes, Goher masterfully constructs this tale that starkly sets itself within the Egyptian class system. I'm not sure how Goher managed to maintain such a perfectly balanced tone throughout, vacillating between childlike and stark, hopeful and heartbreaking. When we meet Toha and Nelly, there's a sibling chemistry that feels very real yet the more this story unfolds the more we realize the depth of what is really and truly unfolding here.
Both Goher and Diab are Heartland vets. In fact, I have Diab's autograph on a Heartland poster that sits behind me as I write this review. They understand what it means to create a truly moving picture and, indeed, Happy Birthday is a truly moving picture and one of the most moving pictures of 2025 I've seen to date. The more I watched Ramadan's performance as Toha unfold, the more I was in awe. I've long proclaimed Victoire Thivisol's performance in the French Ponette as the finest child performance I've ever seen.
Ramadan is, at the very least, incredibly close. She manages to capture childlike wonder, cultural naivete, and rather gut-wrenching heartbreak all in one. As we get closer to the birthday party that is simultaneously also wrapped by Nelly's own twists and turns in life, one can't help but feel shocked and broken by the chasm that exists between these two children who are BFFs that society will never allow to be BFFs.
I'm not sure if Goher coaxed this marvelous performance out of Ramadan or if she is simply that marvelous here, however, her performance is everything you could possibly want it to be in every moment.Goher herself manages to never allow the film to cross the line into caricature or melodrama, instead painting a portrait that is both instructive and emotionally resonant. There are a myriad of ways that Happy Birthday could have gone wrong.
It never goes wrong.
Much of the credit also must go to the tremendous storytelling of Goher and Diab. As an adult with a disability, and also someone who grew up in a home that didn't celebrate birthdays, I found myself finding common ground with Happy Birthdays. I found myself identifying with the painted on smiles, moments of generosity, and measured kindnesses masking a quiet, culturally implanted exploitation that is so commonplace it isn't particularly even questioned. Ramadan captures all of this so powerfully, infusing Toha with a dignity she's never afforded in real life. While in America we at least try to sell the potential of writing one's own narrative story, it feels an impossibility here and watching this child, whom we can't help but grow to love, is utterly heartbreaking yet also disturbingly matter-of-fact.
In the end, there's something extraordinary that unfolds here. I refuse to say much more about the film because this is, quite simply, a film must experience and a film one should experience. The storytelling is impeccable, Ramadan's performance sublime, and this entire ensemble seemingly understanding every nuance of this story. As Nelly, Khadija Ahmed beautifully captures a child who is equally caught up in this cultural lair of inequity and captivity. Hanan Motawie is excellent as Nadia, Karim uncomfortably inspired as Laila and, quite simply, this entire ensemble is remarkable.
Mina Samy's original score for the film carries forth its emotional and intellectual rhythms. Lensing by Seif El Din Khaled is somehow both immersive and yet, in all the right moments, sublimely perfect at portraying the varying levels of reality in which these characters live.
Easily one of the highlights of the 2025 Heartland International Film Festival, Happy Birthday is a film to be seen and most certainly to not be forgotten.
Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic
