A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Director: Ana Lily Amirpour
Screenwriters: Ana Lily Amirpour

Institute History

Description

Strange things are afoot in Bad City. The Iranian ghost town, home to prostitutes, junkies, pimps and other sordid souls, is a bastion of depravity and hopelessness where a lonely vampire stalks its most unsavory inhabitants. But when boy meets girl, an unusual love story begins to blossom... blood red.

Cinema's first Iranian vampire western, Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut feature basks in the shear pleasure of pulp. A joyful mash-up of genre, archetype, and iconography, its prolific influences span spaghetti westerns, graphic novels, horror films, and the Iranian New Wave. Amped by a mix of Iranian rock, techno, and Morricone-inspired riffs, its airy, anamorphic, black-and-white aesthetic and artfully drawn-out scenes combine the simmering tension of Sergio Leone with the weird surrealism of David Lynch.

Above all, Amirpour’s tale of love and squalor is fun. Why else would a vampire ride a skateboard?

— J.N.

Screening Details

Credits

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