Ana Lily Amirpour is an Iranian-American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor, most known for her feature film debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Self-described as “the first Iranian vampire spaghetti western” and starring Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, Dominic Rains, Mozhan Marnò and Rome Shadanloo, the film built up significant buzz when it premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
The film won the “Revelations Prize” at the 2014 Deauville Film Festival and the Carnet Jove Jury Award, as well as the Citizen Kane Award for Best Directorial Revelation from the Sitges Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the Halekulani Golden Orchid award at the Hawaii International Film Festival.
Excerpt of FF2 Media review of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night from November 20, 2014:
Weird and exhilarating vampire film set in a mythical Iranian nightscape called “Bad City” (although it was actually filmed outside LA).
“The Girl” (Sheila Vand) prowls the dark streets of Bad City covered by her black chador, preying on low life scum. Then she meets “Arash” (Arash Marandi) who is conveniently dressed in a Dracula costume, and she falls head over heels.
Amirpour creates a velvety B&W tableau, adds a hypnotic sound track, and… WOW! (JLH: 4/5)
Although the plot is difficult to explain, it isn’t really the point. The film is beautiful to look at, spooky and haunting with black and white imagery – on one hand pulpy but on the other, romantic. Between the Iranian pop music and the Farsi dialogue, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is clever, beautiful, and well done.
Read the full review: https://ff2media.azurewebsites.net/thehotpinkpen/2014/11/20/girl-walks-home/
To read more on Ana Lily Amirpour: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_Lily_Amirpour
Top Photo: Sheila Vand as “The Girl” in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.
Photo Credit: Kino Lorber.
