The Torontoist.com spoke with Toronto-born Suroosh Alvi (on the left-hand-side in the photo), director of the new film, Heavy Metal In Baghdad, which is currently being showcased at the Toronto International Film Festival. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Torontoist: How did Heavy Metal In Baghdad become a movie?

Alvi: "Interestingly enough it was supposed to be one of the segments on the Vice Guide to Travel. But Eddy and I couldn’t get in [to Iraq] so we found a camera crew and they filmed the concert for us. The band refused to cancel that concert because if their fans had shown up somewhere there was no concert they could have been putting their lives at risk. That went ahead and there was some interesting footage but not enough, so we went last summer. What happened really was that we made a feature by accident. We just kept filming what was happening."

Torontoist: How has the response been at TIFF so far?

Alvi: "It’s been incredibly positive. And we’re happy because we’re creating exposure for them so their voices can be heard. Because they’re absolutely fucked right now. They’re stuck in that Syrian purgatory.

After we got selected for the festival we had TIFF write a letter to the Canadian embassy in Damascus, a formal invitation to come to the festival, we paid for their visa applications and everything and they were flat out denied.

As of about two days ago they’re at risk of getting kicked back into Iraq. The Syrian government has said they’re going to start sending people back to Iraq who don’t have the right kind of stamps on their passports. And these guys don’t have the right kind of stamps.

So what we are doing is we’ve set up HeavyMetalinBaghdad.com and we are trying to raise money for them to move to another country in the middle east where they can gain US protection and be accepted as refugees and live in piece and have a shot because they’re not getting that in Syria. We’ll have that site accepting donations in a few days.

The way I look at it, if the 12,000 friends they have on MySpace gave $5 each that would be enough money for these guys to get out with their families and get to another country. We’re working with the band very closely. We’re talking to them every day."

Read more here.

Heavy Metal In Baghdad plays tonight at 9:45 p.m. at the ROM Theatre in Toronto, ON.