“I didn’t speak to my love on the phone today,” a heartsick 17-year-old boy says in the documentary “Baghdad High,” which was screened in a Manhattan movie theater yesterday. “I pray to God she will call.” Lettering on the screen announced that it was the fourth day the couple had not been in touch.

The audience, a crowd of more than 300 New York City high school students, giggled. “She don’t like you,” one girl shouted.

The camera flashed back to the boy, Anmar. “I pray to God nothing happened to her,” he said.

The audience went silent as a collective realization hit. “Baghdad High” chronicles a year in the life of four high school seniors in the Iraqi capital city’s violence-ridden Karada district, and while it could be correct that Anmar’s girlfriend didn’t like him anymore, there was also a more gruesome possibility.

“Baghdad High” is playing at the Tribeca Film Festival this week and will be shown on HBO this August. Meanwhile, the film’s directors are showing the film to New York City high school students.

Yesterday, students waiting to watch the film appeared distracted; they played on their cell phones, gossiped, and shared iPods.

When it ended, and the directors introduced a surprise guest — one of the four high school stars, Ali — the students answered with a single round of applause.

“You’re too sexy,” a girl in the audience shouted to Ali, who wore stylishly whitewashed jeans, a red-and-gray-striped sweater, and a silver medallion in the shape of Iraq.

Teenager after teenager filed to a microphone to ask him questions.

Ali, who like the other boys in the film is not releasing his last name, has fled Iraq and now attends a public high school in the Washington, D.C., area, where he said his studies are much easier than at his all-boys’ public school in Baghdad. (To his surprise, he said far fewer students in America aim to go to college, and teachers are more lenient and supportive.)

He answered questions in stumbling English, explaining that he likes America, does not expect violence to end in Baghdad any time soon, and enjoys rock music.

After receiving his answer from Ali, one boy nodded and said, solemnly, “It was an honor to watch your movie.” The room filled with applause.

The audience came alive during the film, as well.

“Aww,” a chorus of girls said, when Anmar held up a cell phone littered with Arabic script — he had finally received a text message from his girlfriend.

Giggles erupted when boys on screen first greeted each other in the Iraqi style: by kissing each other’s cheeks three times. Later, when two boys wrapped their arms around each other, relaxing against a fence, someone spit out a homosexual slur.

There was a cheer when another of the boys, Hayder, a Shia Muslim, delivered a long, angry speech to the camera. “I just want to say and ask all the terrorists and bad people, why they do this?” he said. “Because of what?”

The filmmakers, co-directors Ivan O’Mahoney and Laura Winter, said they were thrilled to have American high school students view their film.

“It’s really amazing that it’s got this life beyond the broadcast,” Mr. O’Mahoney said.

A tall senior at Bayard Rustin High School in Manhattan who said he is joining the Marines after he graduates, Marquis St. Thomas, said he was glad to see a human portrait of life in Iraq because he hopes to serve there. “I’ve been waiting for something like this,” he said.

Just before he left the theater, Ali fielded one last inquiry. “You got a girlfriend, Ali?” a girl asked.

Smiling, he shook his head no.