Deep riffs from a bass guitar and rhythmic beats of a kick drum crescendo over a static shot of buildings in downtown Beirut.
The image reveals billowing plumes of smoke moments before a massive explosion at the Port of Beirut sends incendiary debris miles across the city — a blast that killed more than 200 people and injured thousands of others in August of 2020.
When the fiery detritus from a stockpile of ammonium nitrate reaches the camera, spectators are transported to a stage bathed by flashing red and orange strobe lights that mimic the violent explosion. Following is the image and piercing sound of a roaring death growl by Maya Khairallah — the lead singer of Slave to Sirens, the first all-female metal band in the Middle East and subject of this documentary, titled “Sirens.”
This chilling and intense moment from the latest project of Emmy-Award winning Moroccan American filmmaker Rita Baghdadi best encapsulates the essence of the film: Thrash metal is what keeps the five women of Slave to Sirens alive. It’s how they channel their anger toward senseless violence, cruelty to women, homophobia, and the frustration that comes with navigating your mid-to late-twenties in their country.
Baghdadi is best known for co-directing and producing “My Country No More,” a portrait documentary of a rural community in crisis during the rise and fall of the new American oil boom in the early 2010s.
Shooting for “Sirens” started when Baghdadi discovered the band during a search for new music to use for future projects, something the director shared at a recent Los Angeles screening of the film.
The crowd at XTR Studios hollered and applauded as the documentary — which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year — opened with the band in great spirits at England’s Glastonbury Festival in 2019. The focus narrows on the band’s two guitarists and originators, Shery Bechara and Lilas Mayassi, who are struggling to maintain their friendship and composure after once being romantically connected.
Mayassi battles with her sexuality and Bechara fights with the rest of the band. Meanwhile, all the Sirens face demonizing stereotypes as five women who prefer death metal over pop music in a country known for heavily stigmatizing — and at times, banning — the former genre as “devil-worship music.”
“Anytime a woman wants to be anything other than what society wants, it’s always an issue,” Mayassi says in the film.
Baghdadi and Lady & Bird Films, an all female run production company responsible for producing “Sirens,” admitted to using the narrative to directly challenge some of the stereotypes metalheads, women, LGBTQ+ people and the Arab community face in the media. The film has won various awards such as the 2022 Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature at Outfest, the LGBTQ+ film festival in Los Angeles.
Following the L.A. screening, XTR Studios head of film Katheryn Everett facilitated a Q&A between Baghdadi, Lady & Bird Films co-founder Camilla Hall, “Sirens” editor Grace Zahrah and Slave to Sirens members Mayassi and Alma Doumani — the band’s bassist. The panel answered questions about what’s next for the film and band.
Doumani revealed that since filming wrapped, drummer Tatyana Boughaba and singer Khairallah left Slave to Sirens. The remaining members hope to fill the vacant roles so they can release their first studio album.
“All this pain, all this rage … I never wanted it to affect the band,” Mayassi said. “I thought it’s all about music, but it wasn’t all about music.”
“Sirens,” executive produced by Natasha Lyonne and Maya Rudolph, runs 1 hour, 19 minutes in Arabic and English with English subtitles. Audiences can watch the film at theatrical and festival screenings throughout October.