Member review

The first Iranian Vampire Western. This fantasy Horror written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour is filled with a sense of darkness. The film is set in a ghost-town revealing the death and loneliness, where the vampire character is established from. ‘The Girl’ is played by Sheila Vand who fits the role perfectly, playing the part whilst emitting an underlying sense of mystery throughout.

The film is black and white from beginning to end, and for me, this is what made it so much better to watch. Cinematographer, Lyle Vincent and his use of light is a captivating essential to this films visual accomplishment. Scenes such as when the light is coming from behind Atti 'The Prostitute' are just fantastic. Being black and white the lighting has to be so much more carefully dealt with, everything we see is made up lights presence or absence.

Another aspect of the film was its transitions of perspective. How the camera told the story of what we see. Scenes where ‘The Girl’ and ‘Hossein' are on either side of the road, for instance, were amazing.

The art direction in the film does a good job to keeps its horror genre. However, it has also understood that this is no normal Vampire film, it's different and its unique identity and nature is apprehended through everything the Art Department does.

On a note of uniqueness, the range of sound and music in the film is bizarre compared to any other run of the mill vampire film, for me this is what makes it great. Listening to the soundtrack, it would never be a horror. But in its own way it works. The music in the film works around ‘The Girl’. With her hardly ever making a noise, her character's opinion or actions are reflected with the music present in scenes. This creates the relationships between her and the other characters for the audience, for instance, when she is with Arash the music is normal, symbolic of this is how he sees her and this is how she feels. However, with other music, we reminded what she is especially with pieces from Federale.

Overall I undoubtedly enjoyed the film, which really surprised me. It just shows that it doesn't matter, what colour, what language or whatever if the skills are there a masterpiece can be created, which this definitely was for me. I would recommend the film to anyone. It's so unique and different, there is nothing I can relate it to. Even if you like vampire films, this probably wouldn't be for you, because if you are expecting the traditional qualities of a vampire film they are not there. This film is for the people who will appreciate, how every aspect of this film has been put together to become an entirety.