Coming up with an interesting vampire is no easy task this days, so A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night deserves a round of applause for that achievement alone: set in an Iranian oil town named Bad City (it was actually filmed in the US) where the ditches are clogged with the dead, a teen girl vampire (Sheila Vand) roams the streets on a skateboard, wearing eyeliner and a ’60s style striped top under the chādor that billows out behind her like a cape. Cute boy Arash (Arash Marandi) has his own problems – his father’s drug habit, the local drug dealer taking his much-loved car to pay off his father’s debts – and when their paths cross one set of problems might be solved but another is on the horizon.
With long takes and lingering stares, this black and white film owes a lot to the leisurely pacing of the ’80s work of film directors Jim Jarmusch and David Lynch, but director Ana Lily Amirpour is telling her own story here and the result is one part creepy horror, one part soaring love story, and altogether awesome. It’s currently only screening at ACMI in Melbourne (until Feb 10); it’s definitely worth the trip.