Showtimes
Festival Theaters 4/5
By Robert St. Martin
Palm Springs, CA (The Hollywood Times) 1/2/26 – Included in the offerings at this year’s Palm Springs International Film Festival is a feature film by Egyptian writer/filmmaker Sarah Goher, Happy Birthday. Sarah Goher turns a sharply observant lens on class and society in modern Cairo. Eight-year-old Toha, the child maid of an upper middle-class family, navigates a world not built for her as she forges an unlikely bond with her employer’s daughter Nelly. When Nelly’s ninth birthday approaches, Toha, never having celebrated her own, pours herself into making the party perfect. Happy Birthday delivers a heartbreaking story about a young girl coming to terms with a class system she does not understand. Her mother Laila, caught in a pending divorce, is reluctant to make it happen but with Toha’s determination, Nelly’s wish for a birthday party comes true. Happy Birthday has three screenings scheduled: the first being Sunday, January 4, 1:45 PM, at the Festival Theatres 1. For information on the other two screenings, see below.
Sarah Goher co-wrote Happy Birthday with her husband and creative partner Mohamed Diag who who is also the executive producer. Goher and Diab are the filmmaking duo behind the hit Marvel series Moon Knight, which starred Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke and May Calamawy. They were also the producers of the Palestine-set film Amira, which won several awards at the the 2021 Venice Film Festival. Happy Birthday features Egyptian actor stars Nelly Karim (from Voy! Voy! Voy!), Hana Motawie, Hanan Youssef, and child actor Doha Ramadan. How exciting for Sarah Goher that her film Happy Birthday was selected as Egypt’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film for the 2026 Oscars.
Happy Birthday opens with two eight-year-old girls waking up in the middle of the night to prepare for a birthday party. Their giddy, giggly excitement and sense of shared purpose reveal a close bond. But when morning comes, we realize Toha is working as a maid for a wealthy Cairo family and Nelly is the daughter she has grown close to. But Nelly’s birthday party is in jeopardy because her parents are going through a divorce and her mom has just packed up the house for a move to a cheaper place. Toha, who does not even know when her own birthday is, becomes determined to make sure Nelly’s birthday party happens and is perfect. In exchange for all her efforts, she asks Nelly to set aside one birthday candle so she can make her first wish on.
At a recent Q&A after the screening, Goher revealed that she grew up in New York City and only visited Egypt in summers as a child and would stay with her grandmother there. Her grandmother had a lower-class Egyptian maid work for her and, as a child, Goher bonded with that girl even though the girl spoke no English and Goher herself knew little Arabic. Originally Goher hope to make a film about an young girl in a wealthy upper-class Egyptian family with a child maid. Her brother shared with her a short story about a birthday party with a class difference and Goher decided to weave the two together. In writing the script, Goher decided to build in the story of Toha’s own family who survive by fishing in the Nile River. Thus, we get the story of both eight-year-girls and their respective families.
Toha, who does not even know when her own birthday is, becomes determined to make sure Nelly’s birthday party happens and helps convince Nelly’s mother to go shop for all the items needed for a huge birthday celebration. Toha knows next to nothing about the celebration of birthdays which are not important to people from the bottom of society who still in many cases are illiterate. She knows nothing about why a certain number of candles are put on a birthday cake nor the idea of making a wish before blowing out a candle. Toha accompanies Nelly’s mother to a posh suburban shopping center to purchase party supplies which includes candles for a custom-made birthday cake. In exchange for all her efforts, she asks Nelly to set aside one birthday candle so she can make her first wish on.
Toha’s wish is to always be a part of Nelly’s family. When she reveals this to Nelly’s mom, it’s an awkward moment and her employer is not quite sure how to handle it – she doesn’t want to be brutally honest with the young child yet she also wants to discourage such an impossible wish. Toha does not yet comprehend the social hierarchies that exist or the role she is meant to play as a servant. Toha is so focused on making her friend happy that she is blind to all the clues that reveal how she is really viewed by the family and society.
Directed and co-written by Sarah Goher, Happy Birthday is a poignant story about innocence coming up against harsh realities. Goher carefully contrasts the pre-dawn joy of two little girls preparing for a special day with Toha’s duties as a maid. Goher follows the tiny Toha through her day as she dispenses medicine to Nelly’s grandmother, moves propane tanks that are almost as big as her, and even gets to go on an adventure shopping with Nelly’s mom.
Goher shows the world through Toha’s eyes and with her innocence. At one point Toha is so desperate to get back to Nelly’s house for the birthday party that she almost hops in a toktok cab with an unsavory man whose intentions are obviously not good. But Toha has not yet learned to be suspicious. Fortunately, a young boy who drives a toktok cab and used to fish in the Nile with her family comes to her rescue.
Happy Birthday is a beautifully crafted film with a tiny dynamo at its core. And when Toha finally comes to see the class divisions that determine her fate, we come to understand the huge social divisions in Egyptian society.
Director and Writer Sarah Goher is expected to attend the January 4th and January 7th screenings. Happy Birthday has three screening dates at the Palm Springs International Film Festival: SUNDAY, JANUARY 4, 2026, at 1:15 PM, at the Festival Theatres 4/5; WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2026, at 1:45 PM, at the Palm Springs Cultural Center; and SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2026, at 4:30 PM, at the Festival Theatres 4/5. To get tickets, go to: https://psfilmfest.org/film-festival-2026/film-finder/happy-birthday.
