| Iran-USA, 2014 | Postmodern/Horror/Thriller | Author Work | Trailer |
The reasons that made me pick this movie were three things: Firstly, I have a particular liking towards Iranians and their culture; secondly, the title and the eyecatch picture gave me an irresistible hunch that this could be an interesting watch; and thirdly, reading it was a vampire movie set in an Iranian context made me overly curious to see what this baby could offer me. God bless postmodernity and globalization (in this sense).
I just needed the first five minutes to know that this was going to be a great ride. If I had to describe this movie, it would be the Iranian answer to Tarantino, Robert Rodríguez, Jim Jarmush, Anna Karina, James Dean, Bergman and Bresson, greaser films, ghetto culture, new wave, neowestern, raw horror and the Hammer factory, all at the same time. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is the very expression of the deepest passion of a true cinema and pop culture lover. How couldn’t I feel in awe with it during its watch? This is good shit.
Let me interpret my bold description for you, the reader. Think about all the clichés and stereotypes of the artists and styles I have mentioned and blend them together until you form an uniform purée. Now, the setting. It is equally strange: a fictional industrial Persian brickhouse town, built on wastelands, oil fields and energy plants, with a decadent Midwest American varnish over it, during a time resembling all 60s and 70s together in a nutshell. Why do you feel that this context awkwardly fits with the whole description?
In this baffling world that is more familiar to the humid dream of a B-series aficionado than of an auteur, we find two main characters: boy and girl. The greaser and the vampire, respectively. Both live the night, but in different ways. When they coincide, night seems to become absolute, the world fades away and they find relief, and addictive intimacy, in each other’s company. But, at what cost?
All this is shot in a superb black and white that enhances all possible connotations of what we can see here. The night in this odd world is silent and solitary, oozing the ghostly presence of the void in all scenes. The void of a moribund, crooked and decadent society.
This film is equally eloquent in other aspects. Long, intense, ear-hammering silences are combined with classic hits from the 60s-70s that bathe the scenes they sound in in a sort of frenetic hypnosis, very unfitting to the otherwise horrific atmosphere but absolutely precious at character and world building. Sometimes, it recreates itself with extremely long shots that bare (and bear) the shown world and people for the audience’s pleasure. Other times, it’s just the honest and plain work by a passionate cinema enjoyer that wants to show which her influences were and how much fun she finds at shooting her own work.
With this movie, you can notice the two worlds that reside in the mind of the director: Iran and America, her own culture and the pop culture she loves. Even with all the American varnish sprayed over the movie, you can’t unsee that this is an Iranian work -with all the assets, people, culture shown and the particular connotations of the female characters displayed-. You perceive this is a film with a strong identity and ideas.
If you watch A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night you will find in yourself a plethora of reactions towards what you see. Sometimes you’ll feel familiar tastes, other times you will recreate yourself in the strong imagination of its maker, otherwise you will just empty your mind and enjoy the ride. But, let me recommend you one thing to always bear in your mind, during and after the watch: It’s a good thing that we live in a world and societal context where this kind of work has the possibility to exist. You can thank me later.
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(and as an additional curiosity, one of the producers here is Elijah Wood, and one of the featuring actors is Marshall Manesh, the jolly cab driver from How I Met Your Mother)