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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 persuaded by Shaydah into taking one of the ecstasy pills he is selling. Under the influence, he becomes disoriented, and ends up lost at night on the street. Somehow creepy, eerie, fun, and energetic all at once, with its mixing of traditional and alternative musical genres, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT is an instant classic.
She is the perpetrator, not the victim, and possesses agency and power that would not be typically reserved for her in an environment such as Bad City. Atti, a prostitute who worked for Saeed, is followed at night by the woman, and they retreat to the prostitute's apartment. They have a conversation during which the woman realizes that Atti no longer remembers what it is to desire. What it means to me as an Iranian woman, more than just as a good horror movie, more than even a movie empowering Iranian women, is that it celebrates the power of opportunity. It’s doubtful Amirpour would have been able to create a movie of this magnitude if her family had remained in Iran, instead of taking the chance to immigrate to Europe and, later, to California. The band allows the fictional Bad Town to exist within multiple spheres, blurring the lines between distinct movie genres and distinct cultures.
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The film was adapted into a six part graphic novel series published by Radco in 2014. The series explores The Girl's backstory with art from Michael DeWeese. A limited edition vinyl pressing of the soundtrack, and accompanying album art, was released by Death Waltz Records in January 2014. The film was shot digitally with anamorphic lenses, which Amirpour and Vincent selected in an effort to emphasize the bleak, otherworldly atmosphere of the film. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night was shot over the course of twenty-four days, in the town of Taft in Kern County in southern California. This allowed Amirpour to not be constrained by the restrictions of filming in Iran, which include having to obtain a filming permit and facing content censorship, such as the prohibition of almost all depictions of physical romantic love.
It wouldn't be unfair to say that this is an exercise primarily on style over substance. This doesn't bother me personally, as I enjoy films that embrace cinematic style. It's typified by great black and white cinematography with lovely widescreen framing. When you combine all of these disparate elements together in an American film shot entirely in Iranian, the result is a very odd film indeed. It also plays on the idea that the Hijab veil looks similar to the garb of those traditional vampires.
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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. Many of the artists featured on this soundtrack, though Iranian-based, produce and perform their music outside of Iran; the radical socio-political commentary found in the lyrics of songs from bands like Kiosk or Radio Tehran is explicitly forbidden in Iran. Instead of remaining silent, they chose to immigrate to Europe, Canada and the U.S, becoming the voice of a majority of Iran’s younger generation and permitting Iranian culture to continue to progress.
I guess because of her heritage coupled with the tensions between America and Iran, many meanings seem to have been interpreted in this film. I think the truth is that this is a film with some minor political undercurrents but which takes its influences far more from cinema itself. Set in a bleak dusty place called Bad City, a settlement full of drug addicts, vice and despair, it follows a small group of characters one of which is a female vampire who roams the streets at night preying on the worst in her society.
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While there, she grows long fangs and first bites off his finger, then 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.
The eclectic nature of the soundtrack is immediately noticeable — with the traditional accordion and Iranian crooning of Kiosk's 'Charkesh E Pooch' a clear opposite of Radio Tehran's punky and irreverent 'Tatilat'. White Lies' 'Death' gives off a new wave melodic vibe, while Farah's ambient 'Dancing Girls' does its best to seduce you with its spoken word vocals. Both creepy and eerie and fun and energetic with its mixing of traditional and alternative musical genres, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT is an instant classic. Has an effortlessly cool soundtrack featuring music from artists such as Kiosk, Radio Tehran, and Federale. Despite not being scored, the music selected by the director nevertheless bears heavy influence from the film music world, particularly the electronically ethereal work of Tangerine Dream, and the inescapable Western sounds of Ennio Morricone.
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I really appreciated the visual style and the original aspects inherent in an Iranian vampire film, while the mix of genres did create something new. On the other hand, it begins very well and does meander in the second half somewhat. It would probably have worked better as a ninety minute movie given the slightness of the material itself.
They are harassed by a cruel, drug-dealer pimp named Saeed, who seizes the young man's prized car in exchange for money the father owes him. In a crime of opportunity, Arash steals a pair of diamond earrings from the wealthy young woman he works for, Shaydah. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night takes place in "the Iranian ghost-town Bad City" and depicts the doings of "a lonesome vampire". It was chosen to show in the "Next" program at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Suffering from heroin withdrawal, Hossein has an episode where he believes that Arash's cat is his dead wife.
However, the genre is reimagined with a female lead, and is a hybrid spaghetti Western-vampire film. As a vampire film it serves as an homage to its legacy of predecessors especially the 1922 German Expressionist film Nosferatu. Echoes of the film are seen in the choice of shooting in black-and-white, the use of shadows, and the minimal dialogue. The film's dialogue is entirely in Persian, and the film blends elements of Iranian culture with the spaghetti Western-vampire imagery described above. Like another of 2014's best horror films Honeymoon, this one is also directed by a woman. Ana Lily Amirpour is of Iranian descent but born in the UK and brought up in America.
It’s a quiet gesture, this remix of convention to include input from other cultures, but a powerful one. With “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,” Amirpour constructs a story without limitations; instead, it masterfully traverses the rift between Eastern and Western ideals and finds a way to mend the disconnect. Much like its lack of color, “A Girl” lacks excessive dialogue, choosing instead to let its characters speak through the music that fills the negative space.
Even though the scene contains no dialogue, it speaks volumes about The Girl. Its contrasting components divulge a multi-dimensional character who moves past the flat trope of the stereotypical horror movie monster. Instead, we get a vampire who puts on makeup surrounded by muted fairy lights and saves abused prostitutes, then brutally murders an insolent pimp. Through combining traditional and modern elements of Iranian culture, as well as including both Western and Eastern influences, Amirpour creates a masterpiece that transcends all previously drawn boundaries. “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night” is a melting pot of influences, seen in the pairing of chador and fangs, seen in the Iranian tattoos on a crass pimp and, most importantly, seen in the soundtrack itself. In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.
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