A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

USA 2014
produced by
Ana Lily Amirpour, Justin Begnaud, Sina Sayyah, Ben Conrad (executive), Daniel Grove (executive), Patrick Grove (executive), Nick Moceri (executive), Daniel Noah (executive), Reza Sixo Safai (executive), Alexei Tylevich (executive), Josh C. Waller (executive), Elijah Wood (executive) for Say Ahh Productions, SpectreVision, Logan Pictures, Black Light District
directed by Ana Lily Amirpour
starring Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, Mozhan Marnò, Dominic Rains, Rome Shadanloo, Milad Eghbali, Reza Sixo Safai, Ray Haratianb, Pej Vahdat
written by Ana Lily Amirpour

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Arash's (Arash Marandi) is nothing but trouble: His dad (Marshall Manesh) is a hopeless junkie and gambler, he works at a dead end job as a caretaker where he's constantly teased by his boss's daughter (Rome Shadanloo), and then a pimp (Dominic Rains) steals his vintage car, his only pride. When he goes to the pimp's house though, he finds him dead, slaughtered with his neck torn open and one of his fingers missing. The only clue to his killer is a girl (Sheila Vand) with a bloodied mouth whom Arash saw leaving the place when he entered - but he really doesn't care about who killed the guy, as long as he got his car back ... plus a suitcase of money and drugs that might help him and his father for a while.

The girl he saw leaving the house is in fact a vampire, but also a tragic figure because she doesn't necessarily like what she's doing, but she does have her urges, and has the talent to lure people into death traps. Soon she and Arash meet again, but he's dead drunk and in a Dracula costume, and though he'd be easy prey, the girl takes him home and lets him sleep it off at her place. He falls head over heels in love with her, and she manages to control her urges with him - but might affect those around him ...

A Girl Walks Home at Night is, despite its outbreaks of violence and the occasional funny scenes, first and foremost a lyrical movie, moving at a deliberately slow pace to give the story time to properly develop while carried by beautiful camerawork and sharp black and white that really sets up the atmosphere. And add to that Persian pop music beautifully counterpointing the lyrical aspects of the film, plus a competent ensemble cast, and you've got yourself a pretty good movie.

By the way, even though the movie was shot in the USA, it's set in Iran and filmed in Persian language.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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