In a Middle Eastern town, perhaps named Bad City or perhaps not, Arash (Arash Marandi) lives with his junkie father (Marshall Manesh) and works as a handyman, and perhaps middleman drug dealer. The main dealer and pimp (Dominic Rains) is coming down hard on him for his fatherās debts, and takes the one thing that he owns, his car. To get it back, Arash steals jewelry from the daughter (Rome Shadanloo) of the rich people he works for. But his plans, as well as those of the pimp, go out the window when he crosses paths with a vampire (Sheila Vand) who prowls the streets at night.
Filmed in California with the characters speaking Farsi, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night has been called a Noir, feminist, romantic, western, vampire flick, influenced by ā50s youth cinema and the Iranian New Wave and taking on the systematic inequality of Iranian society, which I find odd as it is not most of those things. Sure, Arash has a James Dean feel about him and the picture does look like the Iranian short films that have been submitted to me over the last decade, but thereās nothing Noir here, and itās about as unromantic a film as you can get. Also, having oil wells does not make something a western.
While it can stake a claim toward being feminist, I wouldnāt point toward this as an examination of womenās power in Iran. There are essentially 7 characters. Of the 3 women, one is a prostitute (at the bottom rung of society), one is a rich socialite (the most free and happy character in the film), and one is a vampire. Of the males, one is a street urchin (bottom rung), one a junkie (bottom rung), one a poor day laborer (bottom rung) and one a pimp (slightly higher). And thatās pretty much everyone. As thatās all there is to go by, it seems the real power is in the womenās hands. The vampire does have a habit of punishing men who misbehave toward women, but she also murders the homeless, so not even a power-fantasy.
It is accurate to say itās a vampire movie. Beyond that, itās really about personal longing and despair. Itās a Bruce Springsteen song brought to life, minus the song. Our main characters are young, with no future. They live in a nowhere town, with nowhere jobs. Itās empty and hopeless. Arash doesnāt know what he wants; he just wants something. The Girl, as thatās the only name the vampire is given, seems to be as lost, although thereās no way to tell if sheās a youth who canāt see any possibilities, or a thousand-year-old who has long since given up. The focus is on their despondency, and on the dreary world they inhabit. And it is empty in multiple ways as the city is nearly devoid of humans. No one walks or drives the streets by day, and by night they belong to The Girl. One could claim that the movie takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, where all but a few have died from an unspecified plague and nothing would contradict that.
All that sounds depressing, and itās true the film isnāt uplifting or a laugh-fest, but it isnāt a gloomy watching experience either. Partly thatās due to the dream-like feeling of it, but mostly itās The Girl. A beautiful, never-smiling young woman, in a hip striped shirt and covered with a Chador, stalking the few people that exist or skateboarding down the middle of the road, makes for wonderful images. Sheās one of the great vampires, at least in design, and I can see her as the daughter or granddaughter of Lugosiās Dracula.
Itās good that The Girl is such a powerful sight, and the atmosphere is so strong, as those have to do all the heavy lifting; there is barely a plot and the characters are thinly drawn. Little happens and nothing is settled. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night doesnāt exist to tell a story, but just to let you feel a nihilistic dream for a while. Iād have liked it to do more, but itās enough.