A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night: When Predators Become the Prey

Ana Lily Amirpour’s 2014 film, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, is a beautifully shot black and white horror romance film that tears apart conservative gender roles and toxic masculinity. Made on a budget of less than $60,000 and filmed in less than four weeks, this film was very well received by critics and general audiences at both Sundance and during its theatrical release (Indiegogo). Despite being a Persian language film set in the Middle-East, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night was actually filmed in California- to avoid the strict laws surrounding filming in Iran (Daily Bruin). 

The film starts with the main male protagonist, Arash, finding his father’s lost cat. On Arash’s way back to his car the audience gets a sense of the creatively titled Bad City, as he passes by dozens oil wells, prostitutes, poverty, begging children, and perhaps most jarring a gully full of dead bodies. 

Once back home, Arash is greeted by his drug addicted father listening to a T.V. program that's spouting off about how women should be happy for their role as the homemaker in society, and how they should be kind to their hardworking breadwinning husbands. The T.V. program continues on to say that it is not only natural but good that husbands, gamble, take drugs, and have other sexual relationships outside of the family. This program lays the basis for  This theme of traditional gender/familiar roles and toxic masculinity that are subverted subtly throughout the film. 

Shortly after this, Saeed -a drug dealer- comes by and subtly threatens Arash and then collects Arash’s prized car as payment for his father’s debts. A few scenes later Saeed is talking to a Atti, a prostitute, in his new car. After asking her age Saeed asks if she wants to have children and insisting that she must, Atti feeling very uncomfortable with the questioning wants to get the whole ordeal over with, get paid, and leave. The lining of questioning by Saeed harkens back to one of the elements of the female gender role brought up by the T.V. program at the beginning of the film- to be a mother to have kids and raise a family. However the ability to raise a family is not always in the cards for a multitude of reasons and not to mention the desire or interest to raise a family. This is depicted later on in the film when it is made clear later that Atti does not have a lot of money and that she not only has no desire to start a family, but at this point in her life she really has no desire for anything at all.

Very soon after this encounter Saeed runs into and brings ‘The Girl’ to his house. Once there he unzips his jacket to show off his muscles, takes drugs, and lifts some weights all in an effort to seduce her. Eventually he closes the gap between him and ‘The Girl’ and begins to trace his finger from her jaw to her mouth. Once he puts his finger into her mouth to assert some level of dominance, ‘The Girl’ responds by biting his finger off and then sucking his blood- as she is a vampire. Amirpour does a great job in this scene by making the viewer uncomfortable with each new insincere and thoughtless action Saeed does to try and show off his masculinity to ‘The Girl’. Saeed’s existence in this film is as a symbol of toxic masculinity. His aggression and threat of violence towards Arash and his disregard for both Atti and ‘The Girl’ show the problems of toxic masculinity- particularly in how it harms others within society. Saeed as an abusive figure is juxtaposed by Arash, who although far from perfect, does act more thoughtfully in his interactions with the women in the film. 

After Saeed’s death Arash takes back his car and steals the drugs and money that was in Saeed’s possession. From here Arash tries to impress Shaydah, a girl who he has worked for in the past, at a party through giving her free drugs and dancing with her. After he tries to kiss her and he is rebuffed, instead of getting aggressive or violent, he backs off and leaves. This is where he runs into ‘The Girl’. Fully expecting Arash to be like Saeed she lures him back to her home and when he acts without any ulterior motive simply just trying to enjoy the company of someone he finds interesting- ‘The Girl’ cannot bring herself to kill him. Arash is put to the test again when he invites her out on a date. 

During the date Arash gives ‘The Girl’ earrings and then he begins tracing his finger from her jaw, but instead of putting his finger in her mouth to assert control he brings his finder to her ear remarking how it was not a very good gift as he did not take into account that her ears are unpierced. ‘The Girl’ then asks for Arash to pierce her ears -in so many words- and Arash is hesitant to do so repeatedly asking for her consent before finally piercing her ears. The fact that he stole these earrings aside, it is a significant contrast to when Saeed took ‘The Girl’ back to his apartment. 

As opposed to Saeed, Arash is more sincere to ‘The Girl’. Instead of trying to show off his manliness or acquired status symbols, he instead talks to her wanting to get to know her better. The mirroring of both Arash and Saeed touching ‘The Girl’s’ face is stark in both of their motives. Saeed’s action was emotionless and self motivated whereas Arash’s was much more thoughtful and unselfish. The callousness in which Saeed acts with women, seeing them only as objects of his own pleasure, is what ultimately brings ‘The Girl’ to kill him. Arash on the other hand sees ‘The Girl’ as a person, one he is interested in for sure, but he acts with genuine sincerity and respect towards her. When ‘The Girl’ denies/rejects him during their date he does not get angry or violent, but instead he lets her walk away. 

Lily Amirpour’s subversion of gender roles and toxic masculinity depicted in her juxtaposition of Saeed and Arash’s motives and actions in regards to ‘The Girl’ in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is subtle and never hits the audience over the head which makes it all the more powerful to the viewer that pays attention and reflects on the details of the film . 

Women Who Worked on This Film

• Ana Lily Amirpour

• Writer/Director

• Shelia Vand

• The Girl

• Mozhan Marno

• Atti

• Rome Shadanloo

• Shaydah

• Shahrzad Davani

• Producer

• Sina Sayyah

• Co-Producer

• Natalie O’Brien

• Costume Designer

• Dnelle Almanza

• Assistant Makeup Artist

• Lousie Cockburn

• Makeup Artist

• Jill Fogel

• Prosthetic Designer/Key Makeup Artist

• Rose Lopez

• Assistant Makeup Artist

• Dana Keating

• Assistant Director/Production Coordinator

• Noelle DiMarco

• Assistant Sound Editor

• Natalia Saavedra Brychcy

• Assistant Sound Editor/Sound Effects Editor

• Vicki Vandergrift

• Foley Artist

• Jan Brauer

• Additional Sound Design

• Tess Fournier

• Assistant Sounder Editor

• Rachel Keyte

• Digital Compositor

• Adekson Luna

• Electrician

• Nikki Parish

• Costume Assistant

• Delaura Attaran

• Production Assistant

• Milivia Bonacini

• Voice Actress: Rome Shadanloo

• Isabella Dunn

• Cello

• Farah Holly

• Primary Artist

• Nina Foster

• Viola

• Meghann Hega

• Finger Cymbals

• Anna Kirkpatrick

• Violin

• Nelly Kovalev

• Strings

• Fiona Leggat

• Viola

• Rachel Robson

• Viola

• Sina Sayyah

• Producer

• Sarah Wilson

• Cello

• Margret Attwood and Jane Fleming

• Special Thanks

Works Cited

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Ana Lily Amirpour, SpectreVision, 2014.

Amirpour, Ana Lily. “A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT Feature Film.” Indiegogo, 12 July 2012, www.indiegogo.com/projects/a-girl-walks-home-alone-at-night-feature-film#/.

“Cross Cut: Iranian Filmmakers Seek Artistic Freedom.” Daily Bruin, dailybruin.com/2015/01/08/cross-cut-iranian-filmmakers-seek-artistic-freedom.

“A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night - Various Artists: Credits.” AllMusic, www.allmusic.com/album/a-girl-walks-home-alone-at-night-mw0002838943/credits.

“A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt2326554/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ql_cl.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Trailer