Film Hick: Heavy Metal Baghdad (2007)

Directors: Suroosh Alvi, Eddy Moretti; Running Time: 84 min.

I\’ve watched a few films about Iraq recently and learned some things that the mainstream media has failed to cover, but none has brought to the table what this film does. I don\’t think that anything I have seen or read has quite illustrated for me how small the differences are between the inhabitants of Iraq and yet how large the gulf is in the quality of our lives.

It is the genius of this film that it gives its audience a touchstone by which it will be able to empathise and sympathise with the Iraqis, but also, and this is much more important, people might actually gain some kind of understanding. You watch a film like this and it can\’t help but bring the whole thing a little closer. Most of what I had seen earlier concerned soldiers – no one was looking at your average Iraqi or trying to give them a voice.

You think you know about a thing from what information is available to you and then something comes along and blows the lid off it. Acrassicauda are brave, dedicated, passionate about their music, but perhaps most importantly they are just ordinary guys trying to live their lives in a fucked up situation. Go see it.