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2007
Dir. Suroosh Alvi, Eddy Moretti
Passionate music seems to always be linked to adversity. For most Western bands they might have their run-in's with the cops or lousy childhoods or general angst to complain about. But for Iraqi band Arissacauda, the daily reality of living in Baghdad, Iraq, in a post-9/11 world presents some very real, very tangible and very deadly adversity. The band's story is one of finding a way to survive when seemingly everything around you is bent against any sort of success or expression.
Getting noticed by Vice magazine the film opens with some explanation of how the magazine editors/filmmakers found out about Arissacauda and attempted to get to Baghdad to film their first show. Given that this is 2002 they experience some travel difficulties and are unable to get to the show. Their contact, a Dutch employee, does manage to get there, though, and to start filming. The band members explain that while their heavy-metal stylings aren't exactly welcome they're not banned outright. They do note that they're unable to grow their hair long or have headbanging at their show (too similar to Jewish pilgrims at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, it seems). They've learned English by listening to lots of popular heavy metal acts and are just responding in the way young men often want to in that genre. But since the war/invasion even power is hard to come by - demonstrated when the power cuts out during their set. The attending crowd get into the show, though, and make it a seeming success.
Fast forward two years and the Vice guys are now able to get to Baghdad to reach out to the band. The band, it seems, has not played a show since that last. They've continued to practice despite having no support for their type of music and how they want to do it. And they continue even after a rocket attack demolishes their practice space. The band members are understandably shaken but resolved nonetheless. This, after all, is still their home and feeding their passion to escape it any way they can (literally or artistically).
The band eventually finds themselves in Sudan where, while they still don't have any support musically, they do at least have a lack of the constant fear of dying in a warzone. But it's clear the separation still pains them, that they miss their home despite so badly wanting to escape. And that's the fait accompli of the film - showing the struggles of these young men to do something that should be fairly simple and the seeming huge obstacles in front of them the filmmakers make a subtle but underlying point about the cost of war time on civilians. It's the kind of casualty that doesn't show up in any numbers or in any news report - but it's real people, living their lives, caught in the midst of ideologies that they don't believe in, just trying to live out their hopes and dreams like anyone. For most Western audiences this side of the Iraq invasion/â€war on terror†is missing from the discussions around it all - so it's refreshing when something as simple as a heavy metal band can bring that all back into proper focus and renew discussion.
Rating: B+
