We finally arrive at my third best subtitled movie and its Iran’s finest as this movie is a low budget movie that is just funny and it suggests the audience has a level of intelligence to follow the logical thought of the characters. There are scenes here which are just a joy to watch when you think about it. The official title is دختری در شب تنها به خانه میرود which is Persian and the language of the movie. It was written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour who described this as the ‘first Iranian vampire western’. You can make of that what you will. It was funded via a crowdfund request which made around $60k (under $60k in fact) it went on to recoup $628k at the box office which in my eyes, has to be seen as a success. Now from a critic’s point of view we are completely split between the three of us with IMDb giving it a lowly 7 out of 10, whilst Rotten Tomatoes loved it with a 96%. It stars Sheila Vand as ‘the girl’ along with Arash Marandi, Mozhan Marnò, Marshall Manesh, and Dominic Rains. I think its time to move to the plot.
The film is set in a fictional ghost town in Iran called Bad City, a young hard working man named Arash lives with his father. His father is a heroin-addict called Hossein. The father and Arash thinking about it is harassed by Saeed. Now Saeed is what makes Bad City, Bad as he is a pimp, drug dealer, prostitute using, drug taking and theft to boot. Hossein owes Saeed money and when he cannot pay Saeed take property instead to cover the debt. Arash’s car is included in the deal, which Hossein is fine with as he has just got his next fix. Arash tries to raise cash to cover the debt but working hard then decides to steal some earrings from a wealthy woman he is working for. Saeed lives in a plush home which you’d assume he got from his pimp-drug lifestyle. On his way there he comes across a girl, ‘the girl’ who agrees to come back to his apartment with him. Sometime later Arash arrives with his stolen earrings in attempt to get his car back. As he arrives ‘the girl’ is leaving and they exchange glances. Arash enters the flat to find Saeed dead, his car keys, piles of cash and a case of drugs, but the honest lad only came for the keys…
This is a slow steady paced movie where the audience is lead with the characters to different moral dilemma’s the first for Arash is when he arrives at the drug-pimps house to discover his body and a load of valuables at the home. Does he just get his car back and leave? Does he take advantage and take some cash or does he take the cash, the drugs and anything else he thinks is worth having. The film does this over and over with the moral judgement of people comes back as a vengeful presence is in the city trying to make it better and if you do the wrong thing it might cost you more than just money. I love how clever and subtle this movie is, its not in your face because it doesn’t need to be. Its says “Hey, thanks for joining me today, let me tell you story.” It doesn’t say “I am over here!! WOO HOO!!! Look at these explosions and amazing special effects. Oh, oh, look at me look at me. Please look at me I am performing for you!!” This is subtle and relaxed in its story telling it is black and white with subtitles and deserving of the number 3 slot on that list. This movie leads you to a point where it says what would you do, then it shows you what these characters did. The story is so clever and chilled it is just a great movie. I loved the skateboard and that in itself was a dilemma – wasn’t it? If you haven’t yet, then go enjoy!
Next up is a war movie about how bad war is except everyone appeared to miss that point..
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