Based on a 2011 short of the same title, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a stylishly told vampire story, written and directed by the Iranian-American Ana Lily Amirpour. The unnamed girl of the title (Sheila Vand) is a vampire who walks the streets at night, and encounters a prostitute, a transvestite, a heroin addict, a drug dealer, a street urchin and a young man called Arash (Arash Marandi). Each character is featured in turn in the parallel tales of Arash and the sinister black-shrouded girl, whose very funny chance encounter one night sparks the romance at the centre of the story.
Although it is a fairly standard human-vampire romance, the different geographical and cultural setting adds interest, and I am curious about Amirpour's comic book series that is said to expand on the characters. The dim black and white cinematography captures the right mood, and industrial noise is used to create tension to great effect. There is a very clear stylistic debt to David Lynch, even down to the superb use of music, with slow rockabilly and 80s disco, as well as Iranian pop music (I hope the soundtrack gets a release). Like Lynch, there is a detached sense of time and a sense that the film takes place outside the real world - a sort of dreamy Iran/California desert hybrid.
This has to be one of the more interesting of the continuing flurry of vampire films, and it has made it onto the shortlist for best overall film at the festival. Judged by these high standards, I think it is too slight - the director admits that there is no political intent and there is little evidence of subtext - and borrows too heavily from Lynch to be a serious contender. As a standalone film however it works well as dark entertainment, the novel setting expanding the genre.
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