Director: Ana Lily Amirpour Cast: Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Dominic Rains, Marshall Manesh.
“If there was a storm coming right now…Would it change anything?”
A regular boy from a ghost town in Iran (also known as Bad City) encounters a mysterious girl in a 99-minute visual delicacy. The girl (Sheila Vand) is a vampire who has been feeding herself the music and blood of bad men from Bad City as she walks home alone, something she’s been doing for the last 186 years. She wears a hijab and lets her veil fly like a superhero’s cape, often taking a quick ride on a kid’s skateboard. All of a sudden, on a very silent night, she meets Arash (Arash Marandi), a man sporting a Dracula costume, as he comes into focus under a streetlight.
Arash is a hardworking boy who finds himself turning to the dark side, thanks to a bullying pimp (Dominic Rains) and a drug-addicted father (Marshall Manesh). Soon enough, there’s a spark of romance between the two. Before the romance can develop, the girl walks away claiming that she was “bad.” Arash proclaims it doesn’t matter. No one can call themselves “bad” in a city that is full of rejects and misfits.
Interestingly, what he doesn’t know is that the girl’s hit list of men she has murdered has one more name: Hossein, Arash’s father. Unaware of her past, Arash falls for her and asks her to leave the city with him, unable to handle the grief of his father’s death. Once she agrees, Arash learns that she is the one who killed his father. Throughout the film, Arash always believed nothing would change his feelings for her. And it does not. A vampire and a novice drug-dealer meet a fairytale ending with Spaghetti Western music.
In a nutshell, this genre-mashed film is made from a “film-geek’s perspective,” who wants each minute of her film to be fascinating and continuously referencing to all great things that have happened to her so far. The film shows deserted cities packed with heroes who walk with greasy elegance, as well as gangsters with dirty tattoos. This vampire lore really brings in the feel of being stuck in a dead-end town from some neo-noir hell, with intense music and rich visuals reminiscent of Marvel comics or graphic novels. Ana Lily Amirpour wanted it all. It is a lot to have in one plate but she made it happen marvelously. Moreover, it is an American film in the Persian language and its cinematographer Lyle Vincent presents you a piece of Iran entirely shot in California. Gorgeous monochrome visuals is aided with the exquisite use of a widescreen canvas. The music ranges from Middle Eastern fusion beats of Bei Ru to Spaghetti Western inspired tunes of Federale, including Iranian underground rock. With the minimum use of words, this film really is a delightful journey indicted in visual shorthand that cares more about the atmosphere and emotion than the narrative. As a final verdict, it must be said that this film is unlike anything you have ever seen.
