Heavy Metal in Baghdad

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ***½

Heavy Metal in Baghdad marks an important step forward for the widely ignored school of Iraq docs, it depicts the plights of middle class people who in all likelihood led lives that bear more resemblance to documentary viewers in the States than films about soldiers, prisoners, orphans or war criminals. Heavy Metal in Baghdad tells the story of Acrassicauda (which translates to Black Scorpion of the Desert), the only known heavy metal band in Baghdad. Before the 2003 invasion, these young men each identified as being happily apolitical. But after the war broke out their lives changed rapidly: strict street security and curfews made it impossible to get gigs, their practice space was bombed and eventually employment became so scarce all band members had to relocate to Syria to support their families as laborers.

It's a haunting story, told over several years as film-makers Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti made several trips to the Middle East to catch up with the men. Each time finding them in high spirits despite their increasing downward spiral.

That the film was the first for Vice Films, a production company established by hipster lad mag Vice Magazine, cannot be ignored. All of the arrogance, empty irony and tepid intellectualism that has brought the magazine a baffling (if not extremely localized) amount of popularity is on full display here. There are endless scenes where Alvi turns the camera on himself to make self-aggrandizing statements about how brave he is for going into a warzone.

Fair enough, but did we need to see this scene repeated so many times throughout the film? The film-makers also make no attempt to understand the realities these young men face beyond mentioning in voiceover that it "really sucks" several times. They snidely mock the band's choice of cover songs. At one point Alvi casually mistakes a rocket-launched bomb for a SCUD missile, a point that is never corrected. When Alvi meets up with Acrassicauda in Syria he establishes the culture and tone of the new environs by once again pointing the camera directly at himself and saying "no one here is smiling". It's the kind of grandstanding that makes one long for the subtle nuance of a Michael Moore film. Though it does unearth an interesting new phenomenon: Ugly Canadianism.

But despite the directors' exceedingly unpleasant presence for the viewer, it's clear that they've established trust and an excellent rapport with their subjects, who are worth the pain caused by the film-makers. In what has to be one of the most devastating scenes depicted in documentary film in many years, we see Acrassicauda watch a rough cut of the film five years in the making. It starts out as a pleasant reminder of the great times they had as a band but seeing these young men whose lives once held so much joy and promise watch their futures be completely stripped away from them becomes almost too unbearable to watch. It's a moment of intense honesty and depth that this entire story deserved.

DVD extras include a 45-minute follow up called "Heavy Metal in Istanbul," deleted scenes, three Acrassicauda performances and a theatrical trailer.

See also: Dreams of Sparrows, No End in Sight, Persepolis, Heavy Metal Parking Lot, Some Kind of Monster, Cinemania.