Film

Heavy metal is rife with apocalyptic imagery. Still, it’s a safe bet no Bay Area hesher or Swedish neopagan ever faced the challenges endured by Iraqi thrash-metal band Acrassicauda. This new documentary, from the cinematic arm of Brooklyn counterculture magazine Vice, follows the group from the fall of Saddam in 2003 to the present day.

When we first encounter the four personable members of Acrassicauda, all in their twenties, power failures and exploding mortars are everyday occurrences in Baghdad. Metallica T-shirts invite harassment; headbanging is forbidden, supposedly for its resemblance to Jewish prayer. Vice sponsors, but is unable to attend, a triumphant 2004 show in a local hotel.In 2006, at considerable expense and risk, Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi sneak into a disintegrating Baghdad to check on the band. Grainy footage and hip-shot angles attest to their covert maneuvers. By that time, half of Acrassicauda had fled to Syria. The two remaining members fight to keep their dreams alive, even after their practice space is destroyed.

There is a genuine poignancy in the way these brash young men find the determination to endure through Slayer and Slipknot. But as a heartbreaking final scene plays out in Damascus, you can only wonder how a gravely wounded people can survive a nation’s demise.