A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Dir: Ana Lily Amirpour

2014

****

Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut is the first Iranian vampire Western ever made. Being able to boast your film as being the ‘first’ of a certain category is pretty cool but it also has to be great in its own right to have real impact and to mean something. Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night ticks all the boxes. It isn’t just an original vampire movie though, it is also an impressive noir-western with a very cool 1950s beatnik feel about it. Although the language is Persian, it feels very much like an old 1950s American independent film. We’re told it is set in an Iranian ghost-town (called Bad City), and I believed it, but it was actually filmed in Taft in Kern County, southern California. Ana Lily Amirpour lives and works in California after graduating from UCLA Film School, the short film that her debut was based on won Best Short Film at the Noor Iranian Film Festival and the feature length version was shown at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. It’s the best Persian-American film since 2007’s Persepolis and the most original vampire film since Let The Right One In. Great story and all ground-breaking aside, it is a brilliant contemporary noir and this is the real reason for its success. There was a clear air of auspiciousness about it when it came out and everything from the poster, the music and the skateboarding vampire made it feel like you were watching something iconic. I’m not sure it will be anything other than an underground cult classic but that to me is a sign of real success – indeed, some of the best vampire films are the ones least heard of. The intro of the film could have been right out of a classic Nicholas Ray movie as we see young Arash swagger down a road, pick up a cat and drive off in his 1957 Ford Thunderbird. A young boy comments on his car and Arash replies that it took 2,191 days to earn it, it is clearly his pride and joy. Arash lives with and takes care of his heroin-addicted father, Hossein. They are harassed by a cruel, drug-dealer pimp named Saeed (modeled on Ninja V from Die Antwoord), who seizes the Arash’s Thunderbird in exchange for money his father owes him after Arash challenges him. In a crime of opportunity, Arash steals a pair of diamond earrings from Shaydah, the wealthy young woman he works as a gardener for. Later that night, Saeed collects some money from Atti, one of his regular prostitutes. They are disturbed during sex in his newly acquired Thunderbird and after he kicks Atti out he comes across a strange young woman in a chador. She seduces Saeed to take her back to his apartment. He takes drugs and dances for the girl but receives no reaction until he gets close. She suddenly grows long fangs and bites off his finger. Saeed desperately tries to get away but then she goes for his neck, killing him. As she leaves, she passes by Arash, who has come to offer the earrings for his car. He finds Saeed dead, and takes back his car keys along with a suitcase of drugs and cash. Arash decides to sell the drugs, allowing him to quit his job working for Shaydah. Later, he goes to a costume party at a night club dressed up as Dracula, where he is seduced by Shaydah into taking one of the ecstasy pills he is selling. Under the influence, he is rejected by her, and ends up lost at night on the street. The woman with the chador spends her time listening to music alone in her apartment, skateboarding, or bedeviling pedestrians at night, until she comes across the lost Arash. He shows vulnerability and compassion, and she takes him to her home, where they listen to music, and she resists his exposed neck. They meet the next night, and she says that he does not know the terrible things she has done. He is unfazed, gives her the earrings and – at her request – pierces her ears with a safety pin, but she eventually leaves. Atti is followed at night by the woman, and they retreat to the prostitute's apartment. The woman gives Atti the payment Saeed owed her. They have a conversation during which the woman realizes that Atti no longer remembers what it is to desire and the woman once again resists the urge to bite. Suffering from heroin withdrawal, Hossein has an episode where he believes that Arash's cat is his dead wife. Infuriated by his father, Arash gives him drugs and money and throws him out, telling him to take the cat with him. Hossein goes to Atti and forces her to take heroin with him. They are found by the woman, who kills Hossein. After Atti helps her dispose of Hossein's body, she tells her to take the cat and leave. The following morning, Arash discovers Hossein's body. Distressed, he runs to the apartment of the woman and begs her to run away with him. As she is gathering up her things, the cat appears and Arash realizes that she had something to do with his father's death. Arash and the woman drive off together but he pulls off to the side of the road, angry and undecided about what to do. He eventually gets back in the car and the two continue their trip onward. Sheila Vand (as The Girl) and Arash Marandi (as Arash) are both brilliant. The chemistry between the pair is quite special, it feels very natural and the relationship, as bizarre and unspoken as it is, feels convincing. I love the fact that vampirism is never mentioned, although I liked it when the girl seemed bemused when Arash was dressed as Dracula. The short film on which it was based is great and was full of possibilities. I loved that the feature-length version was crowd-funded with such enthusiasm. The film has gone on to having its own graphic novel series and i'm sure before long it will be as iconic as films like American Werewolf in London and Let The Right One In. What I really liked best about the film – apart from the fact it is the first middle-eastern vampire movie – is that, unlike many other films in the genre, it shows the contrast between addiction and vampirism, rather than the similarities. It’s simple but stunning.