‘Happy Birthday’ review: A child maid wishes for a better life in affecting, sensitive Egyptian debut

Dir: Sarah Goher. Egypt. 2025. 91mins

A child maid for a wealthy Cairo household, eight-year-old Toha (Doha Ramadan, a knockout in a demanding role) has a special bond with her mistress’s daughter, Nelly (Khadija Ahmed). It’s Toha’s dearest wish to be accepted as part of Nelly’s family, but in the meantime she puts all her efforts into ensuring that her friend has the best ninth birthday party possible. As the party draws near, however, it becomes clear that Toha is not welcome, in this affecting and sensitively-acted exploration of child labour and class divisions in contemporary Egypt. 

Perceptively detailed work

Selected as Egypt’s official Oscar submission, Happy Birthday is the feature directing debut of Egyptian-American filmmaker Sarah Goher, who also co-writes with her long-term collaborator, Mohamed Diab. They previously worked together on several other projects, with Goher producing Diab’s directorial debut, the multi-award-winning Cairo 678 (2010) and his two subsequent pictures, Clash (2016) and Amira (2021). Happy Birthday, which counts actor Jamie Foxx amongst its producers, premiered at Tribeca, where it picked up prizes for Best International Narrative Feature, Best Screenplay and the Nora Ephron Award, and now plays Tallinn as part of a healthy festival run.

Nelly’s life of privilege is lavish but precarious. Her mother, Laila (Nelly Karim), and father have recently separated and the rooms of their opulent home in an upscale gated community are full of packing boxes, in advance of a move to a less ostentatious property. But Nelly still wants a party, and wakes Toha early to customise last year’s frock and make invitations. Partly for her daughter’s sake, and partly as a last-ditch attempt to mend her fractured marriage, Laila agrees. While Nelly is at school, Toha – who has toiled since she could walk and never had the chance to learn to read – excitedly shadows Laila and busies herself with the preparations. 

Toha is capable and hardworking. But she’s still just a little kid. Cinematographer Seif El Din Khaled’s eager child’s-eye-level lens hungrily explores the forbidden pleasures of the shopping mall, where Laila bulk-buys party supplies. Toha doesn’t notice (or perhaps chooses not to) but there are hostile glances from shop assistants when the little girl gets too close to the pricey frocks. Toha’s excitement about the party has a personal dimension – Nelly has promised to save a candle from the cake so that Toha can borrow a birthday wish. 

Then Toha’s sister arrives, claiming that their mother is in the hospital following an accident and has asked to see her. It’s a lie which is debunked as soon as Toha gets home, to find her mother frazzled, exhausted but uninjured. Thanks to perceptively detailed work by the design department, the contrast between the airy apartment where Toha works and her ramshackle family home could not be more stark. The cluttered space is crammed with younger siblings; clothes and possessions are shared. And since her widowed mother and older sister eke a living catching freshwater fish in the Nile, the stench of fish guts clings to everything. Yet, there’s an energy and community in the chaotic markets and side streets, both of which are lacking in the sterile world behind the security barrier where Nelly lives. 

There’s a heartbreaking inevitability to the film’s final act, in which the resourceful Toha manages to find her way back to the birthday party. Ramadan’s remarkable performance culminates in a phenomenal extended single shot that rests on Toha’s face, lit by a single candle on the mangled remains of a birthday cake.