review: HEAVY METAL IN BAGHDAD

Arts Alliance America  //  Buy from Amazon.com In the late summer of 2006 in the middle of the insurgency filmmakers Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi traveled to Baghdad to meet and interview the only heavy metal band in Iraq Acrassicauda. "Heavy Metal in Baghdad" is the story of the band and its members young Iraqis whose lives have been distorted and displaced by years of continual warfare in their homeland. The filmmakers have collected glimpses into the struggles of Acrassicauda as they try to stay together and stay alive. Their struggle is the untold story of the hopes and dreams of an entire generation of young Iraqis. Admittedly, I was expecting a documentary about a heavy metal band - apparently the only one (not a huge surprise) in Iraq - but what I got instead is a rivetting, powerful look beyond the clips we've been watching for years on the news to see the full measure of the toll that the Iraq War has had on the Iraqi people. Not at all a political film, but instead a documentary about humanity, the focus on a heavy metal band is just the focus (albeit an entertaining & novel one) that the camera turns to in the few years the film covers... To see the evolution/changes/bleakness of the band members is absolutely engrossing - the novelty of heavy metal in the Middle East quickly fades to the stark reality of their existense... and it's not a pretty one. Truly amazing filmmaking, well worth checking out. Video Presented in a 16x9 anamorphic widescreen transfer, we were provided with a screener that seemed to be of high quality. Obviously a low-budget documentary, you get the varying grain/lighting/focus issues you might expect, but nothing that detraccts from the film. Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix is clean & solid throughout. Extras epilogue documentary deleted scenes performance footage and more... but none that we could watch, as the screener did not include any of these... Closing Thoughts Fascinating documentary that explores a completely new side to the whole Iraq conflict