Reviewed by Michael Edwards
Produced by Spike Jonze
Cinematography by Eddy Moretti
Original Music by Acrassicauda
Certification UK 15 | US R
Runtime 84 minutes
Directed by Suroosh Alvi & Eddy Moretti
A documentary centred around the only heavy metal band in Iraq, not a bad premise I'm sure you'll agree. But if you're anything like me you may be suspecting another gimmick that provides a podium to discuss the frustrations faced by the the ordinary folk of Iraq who, as we all know, are just like you and me but with a much tougher life. However this documentary is a lot more than that.
A gutsy investment of time and energy by directors Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti, the film is more a pursuit of their obsession than a vehicle to expound a socio-political message (cough cough Morgan Spurlock cough). Having come in touch with the band, called Acrassicauda, previously in their roles as music journalists, the duo were unable to forget about them. How were they getting on, what had changed in their lives since Saddam was overthrown and, in fact, were they even still alive amid the chaotic mess of sectarian violence and military intrusions from the west. It is this personal investment, evident from the very get-go, that makes this documentary so different and so absorbing. There is none of the Michael Moore quasi-personal spin to make things wry and accessible, just a mission to follow the lives of some musicians who really know what it is to suffer for their art.
This lack of spin, of course, also makes for an insightful documentary that does what so many more carefully planned and targeted movies have failed to do - portray the lives of ordinary Iraqis in a way that is totally accessible to us average Joe Westerners. The issues raised aren't "why do you (not) fight?", and "do all you towel heads really think Americans are burger eating scum" or any such deeply leading twaddle, instead we find out how hard it is when all you want to do is rock the fuck out but your house got blown up or your bandmate ran away to Syria. These are the issues that form daily lives of many and these are issues that we can actually see here.
The only downsides are that these moments are hard to find because when there's a camera on you the 'burning issues' come bubbling up from within and every man, woman and child feels the urge to get up on their soapbox and preach their stance. To the credit of the documentarists, they largely evaded these situations, but it meant that occasionally material was a bit thin on the ground and I sometimes found myself little fidgety as I sat through a monologue about how hard it is to film in Iraq or watched the band reliving experiences on film that we had watched a mere 45 minutes ago. Nonetheless this is a movie that is insightful, emotional and genuinely interesting. It gets one over any Spurlock or Moore production in my books.