A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Ana Lily Amirpour is an Iranian-American filmmaker who made a splash last year with her first feature length film in A Girl Walks Alone at Night, a film she describes as an “Iranian Vampire Spaghetti Western.” The film is a sprawling mishmosh of genres, somehow horror, western, romantic, and noir all in one. It's a lush and impossibly cool film, with its slick black and white cinematography and glossy Iranian New Wave soundtrack. Set in Bad City, an industrial wasteland that serves as an intersection of Southern California and Tehran; the residents live hedonistic and morose lives. The main character of the film, only ominously referred to as "The Girl," is a 187 year old vampire who broods through Bad City during the night in a chador, assuming the role of town vigilante by killing the "bad men." 


Amirpour was born in England but grew up in Miami, Florida. Eventually her family moved to Bakersfield, California (where the film was also shot). There Amirpour’s affection for filmmaking began with her making short films on her father’s Sony Sport Hi-8 camera. She attended art school at San Francisco State University and graduate school at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Amirpour grow up the first generation struggle of maintaining cultural identity while being raised in a foreign land. She heavily incorporates Iranian culture in many of her films, typically setting them in Iran and with dialogue entirely in Farsi.



A Girl Walks Alone at Night is in a few ways a feminist film. The film features an all-Iranian cast, who speak entirely in Farsi, playing a multitude of dynamic characters. The film flips the script on the danger of walking alone at night for women, instead, "The Girl" is the one to be feared. She is the one who stalks and preys in dark corners. She is a protector as well, following a sex worker during her stroll and coming to her rescue whenever she is attacked. "The Girl" exercises agency all aspects of her life, habiting on her own terms. She doesn't report to anyone, there isn't an overarching reason as to why she murders bad men, she isn't a woman scorned. She is simply a vampire who understands that she is bad but choose to do whatever bit of "good" she can. Amirpour herself has an affliction with horror, and was tired of one-dimensional portrayals of Iranians in film. The horror genre isn't one that is very diverse, let alone feminist, so it was a revelation viewing this film. 

Citation:
http://filmmakermagazine.com/people/ana-lily-amirpour/#.VmO7RbiDGkohttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/movies/ana-lily-amirpours-world-a-girl-walks-home-alone-at-night.html?_r=0