Young Maid's Birthday Party Sparks Exploration of Class Divides in Egypt

In 2025, Egypt has selected the coming-of-age drama 'Happy Birthday' as its submission for the 2026 Academy Awards' best international feature category. Directed and co-written by Sarah Goher in her feature debut, the film tells the story of Doha, an eight-year-old maid working for an upper-class family in Cairo.

Doha is determined not to let anyone stop her from throwing a great birthday party for her friend, her employer's daughter. Through this process, the film explores "issues of class, power, and belonging through the eyes of an innocent child." The movie premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2025, where it won awards for best international narrative feature and best screenplay.

For Goher, the film was inspired by her own experiences visiting her grandmother in Cairo as a child. She recalls realizing that the young girl she played with was actually her grandmother's maid, not a relative. This experience of the "gray area" around child labor in Egypt became the basis for the film's narrative.

Casting the young lead was crucial, and Goher ultimately selected newcomer Doha Ramadan after an extensive search. Ramadan, who didn't know how to read when filming began, has since been enrolled in an enrichment program to further develop her artistic talents. Goher hopes audiences will fall in love with Doha's character, just as some of her friends did, despite not typically being interested in children.