Heavy Metal in Baghdad (DVD)

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Marwan and Tony had since fled to Damascus, Syria, where 1.2 million Iraqi refugees have also found themselves. In December of 2006, Firas and Faisal joined their band members in eking out a meager existence far from their homes. They work twelve hour days, seven days a week all to make a pale $100 a month. However, the quartet still has hopes of making it big. Alvi and Moretti join Acrassicauda in Damascus for their reunion concert and assist them in finding a recording studio to cut a demo tape. The band´s numb façade is broken when they view footage themselves playing in their long-destroyed practice room and of their fans, many of whom are either dead or refugees.

Suroosh Alvi is our narrator and filmmaker in front of the camera. Thankfully, he doesn´t attempt to mimic the Michael Moore method of documentary filmmaking. He isn´t lending an overbearing presence to the proceedings, although there are a couple points where he focuses on himself, instead of the band.

Firas himself comes off as the spokesman for the group, an intelligent twentysomething you wouldn´t think twice about if you bumped into him in your neighborhood street. A family man with strong values, he is someone who provides refreshing insight into the Iraqi conflict. Firas is a Sunni and his wife, a Shiite, as such he blows off the burning hostility between the two tribes as media propaganda. He wonders where the democracy they were promised is when he cannot grow his hair long, like his idols, without fear of being murdered.

VIDEO:
The video is presented in anamorphic widescreen with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The film was shot with a high definition digital camera. It looks slightly cleaner than most documentaries. A far cry from big-budget Hollywood moviemaking. I will note that I received a screener from Arts Alliance and not a final copy of the DVD, but it is likely the transfer will not be significantly different.

AUDIO:
The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The film is mainly dialogue with a few musical performances here and there.

EXTRAS:
The DVD includes a 45-minute documentary called "Heavy Metal in Istanbul" that picks up where the main feature left off. It follows the lives of Accrasicauda who have taken refuge in Istanbul after the Syrian government increasing the difficulty of obtaining work VISAs.

You´ll also get a collection of deleted scenes, a trio of live performances from Acrassicauda, and the theatrical trailer. The DVD also comes with an 8-page booklet.

I cannot rate any of these bonus features as they were not included on the screener I received.

FILM VALUE:
I was maybe 11 or 12 years old when I flipped through the channels and came across MTV playing the music video for "One" by Metallica. I have been a heavy metal fan since then. I´ve bought cassettes and CDs, listened to it on the radio, bought t-shirts and gone to concerts. It is so inconceivable to me that people could be killed simply for being a heavy metal fan. To some Islamic fundamentalists, headbanging is equated with Jewish prayer and someone could be killed just for doing it.

"Heavy Metal in Baghdad" is a fascinating look into the everyday lives of the ordinary citizens caught in the middle of a war we only know about through television and the internet.

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