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Baghdad rocks in Toronto
The only heavy metal band from Iraq gets a boost at the Toronto International Film Festival.
By Karen Bliss
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Members of metal band Acrassicauda wear counterfeit Metallica, Slipnot and Slayer t-shirts that they bought on the black market. At the six concerts they performed, their fans often crouched low to the floor to headbang so they couldn't be viewed through the windows. A song was even written for Saddam Hussein called "Youth Of Iraq." That was the only way they could get away with playing western music. That was also before the leader was toppled by American forces and the Iraqi people "freed."
Acrassicauda is Iraq's "only heavy metal band" and Canadian filmmakers Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti have documented the young men's quest to rock-out in the moving film, Heavy Metal In Baghdad, which recently screened at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. Since 2000, the band has played six concerts in Iraq and two in Syria. The crux of the doc is these guys are not free at all -- not free to rock, not free to headbang, not free to travel, not free to live like you or I.
"The reason they're referred to as Iraq's only heavy metal band is because they are the only band to ever have successfully played on a stage live in Baghdad because it was so dangerous," says Alvi, who had to wear a bullet proof vest and be escorted by armed security/guides the entire time he and Moretti were there. "After Saddam fell and there was the rise of the insurgency, they [the band] started receiving death threats for being Satan worshippers."
When Alvi and Moretti filmed the Iraq portion of the documentary, they went to the building that once housed Acrassicauda's rehearsal space. It had been hit by a scud missile and all their gear destroyed. One by one, the band members -- Marwan, Tony, Faisal, Firas -- fled to Damascus, Syria, where they hoped to revive the band. Alvi and Moretti visited them there too and found life for these "rock 'n' roll refugees" tough.
* Last names withheld by request
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