Mona Lisa spent 10 years in a catatonic state in a spooky psychiatric institute, but she awakens on this blood moon night – and with it her telepathic powers. They prove to be immediately useful because escaping with a straitjacket isn‘t easy, and it doess involve some bloodshed. In her escape across the hinterland of New Orleans, she meets Fuzz, a raver prince charming, who comes to her rescue not on a white horse but in a disco ball ride, and Bonnie Belle, the detached and quick-witted stripper, and her precocious son Charley, a nine year old metalhead. Bonnie knows how to use Mona Lisa‘s power in a business savvy but not quite legal way and soon a cop who has already had a painful encounter with Mona Lisa is hot on their trail.

Like A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, the story of Ana Lily Amirpour‘s new film is pretty straight-forward and only comes alive as a cineastic whole. The shrill but warm characters, cool 90s neon look and the propelling techno sound – from Bottin to Acid Pauli - merge into a fantastic trip. However, MONA LISA AND THE BLOOD MOON is more than a funky ride. The feminist horror-comedy also takes pleasure in deconstructing gender stereotypes. Anti-heroines Mona Lisa and Bonnie steal from men and while pill dealer Fuzz is hyper-romantic and believes he has found his soulmate in Mona Lisa, the polo shirt wearing college boys in the strip clubs are misogynous abusers. Amirpour transforms the streets of New Orleans into a raver wonderland with a great cast with Jun Jung Seo in the main role, Kate Hudson as Belle, and Ed Skrein as Fuzz.

Clarissa Lempp (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy