Review: Heavy Metal In Baghdad

Heavy Metal In Baghdad

(VBS TV)

I have to say that I’m really looking forward to Sam Dunn’s sequel to “Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey”, entitled “Global Metal”. One reason is that I’m very curious to see what inroads into the Islamic world have been made by metal, particularly since the events of September 11, 2001. While “Global Metal” has been hotly anticipated, less notice was being given to another film in production, that being “Heavy Metal In Baghdad” by VBS TV, a hard look at the circumstances affecting the only known Iraqi metal band, Acrassicauda.

In very limited release since May, including being chosen as an official selection at the SXSW and Berlin film festivals, “Heavy Metal In Baghdad” also now appears on DVD and is, in this reviewer’s opinion, a must have for not just metal heads, but anyone who is interested in looking beyond the mainstream media’s portrayal of Iraq. Of particular interest is the impact of the U.S. invasion and the subsequent warfare amongst various factions upon youth culture in general, particularly those with a Western bent.

Filmed by Canadian filmmakers Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi, who also appears in front of the camera as the film’s documentarian, the film follows the struggles of Acrassicauda at different moments from 2003-06. Beginning in 2003 after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime and before the full-fledged insurgency, we get a look at Iraq when the promise of freedom seemed just around the corner. The optimism is palpable as Acrassicauda blasts through their mid-paced style of thrash in their rehearsal room, a small space in the back of a market.

Flash forward to 2005. The insurgency is roaring, but the band manages to put together a concert at the Al-Fanar Hotel in Baghdad. The concert, very well documented by Alvi and Moretti, is a thoroughly fascinating affair that shows the unbelievable difficulties that the band and their fans have to overcome in a battleground city that is falling apart in every sense of the word. In addition, Alvi and Moretti provide a surreal look of the environment as the two brave, and perhaps foolhardy, journalists move around Baghdad. Although the style is rougher than what you would see in the mainstream media, you really get a visceral sense of what life is like in the city with these vignettes.

In 2006, Moretti and Alvi return to Baghdad once again, and the band has splintered. The rehearsal space has been destroyed, a few of the band members have fled to Syria, and the remaining members can barely move within a few blocks of home as the city disintegrates around them. Acrassicauda’s bassist, Firas Al-Taleef, is the band member most prominently featured throughout the film, and he provides a haunting look at life in the city. Of note is the stark contrast of the Muslim call to prayer interspersed with the sound of AK-47 gunfire and the detonation of mortar rounds.

Later that year, the remaining members of the band flee to Syria and Acrassicauda reforms and begin to practice once again. Many Iraqi refugees are in place in Damascus, and the band puts together a performance in a Syrian club. The affair goes well, and the band also manages to record a demo in a Damascus studio that’s never been used to record rock music, let alone heavy metal. However, the opportunities for Iraqi refugees in Syria are non-existent, and the members are forced to sell their instruments to make ends meet. The main portion of the film ends here.

The extras are fascinating, including a looser, 45 minute long update of the band successfully relocating to Istanbul and being granted asylum status by the UNHCR. Other extras include some early concert footage filmed prior to the fall of Hussein with some bizarre instances of Acrassicauda getting kicked off the stage in favor of a traditional Arab folk group, and the performance of a song devoted to the glories of Saddam Hussein in another clip.

Frankly, what is most interesting about “Heavy Metal in Baghdad” is the stark portrayal of the shattering of the dreams of a nation, and the struggle of young people in a broken society to put together a future for themselves and their families (Acrassicauda’s obvious passion for metal has motivated them to change their situation as circumstances would allow). The music (in the sense that it’s metal and not some other genre), and whether you actually like the music, becomes less and less important as the film progresses; instead, the music becomes a vehicle for the overall struggle of the people being depicted. Also worth noting is that the politics of the U.S. invasion, thankfully, is not addressed in the film, other than the film adopting a general anti-war stance. That allows the film to appeal to a wide audience.

“Heavy Metal In Baghdad” comes highly recommended and I urge you to investigate the following:

Heavy Metal In Baghdad

MySpace Page: Acrassicauda

UNHCR