The annual New Directors, New Films series (now in its 43rd year!), put on by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, kicked off last night with the premiere of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour's feature debut.

The program provides a nice counterpoint to next month's much larger Tribeca Film Festival, as New Directors/New Films offers a tightly curated array of films (just over two dozen) from a diverse group of relatively unknown, independent directors. Though independent film might be a misnomer at this point, considering how it's been co-opted as both an aesthetic and targeted demographic by big movie studios, New Directors/New Films has a long and storied history finding talent above the fray—past directors have included Chantal Akerman, Pedro Almodóvar, Terence Davies, Guillermo del Toro, Atom Egoyan, Nicole Holofcener, Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Sally Potter, John Sayles, Steven Spielberg, Tom Tykwer and Wim Wenders.

This year's centerpiece film is the Jenny Slate-starring film by Gillian Robespierre called Obvious Child. The series closes on March 30th with Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard's 20,000 Days On Earth starring Nick Cave. Among some other highlights: Dear White People, the Syrian documentary Return to Homs, The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga, and We Come As Friends, a stunning doc on the colonial situation in Sudan.

The 12-day event kicked off last night with the Opening Night Premiere of Iranian-American Ana Lily Amirpour's film, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, a punk-Iranian-vampire-western. *SOME SPOILERS* The film obviously toys around with the vulnerable-girl-after-dusk trope, quickly revealed that the positions of power are anything but traditional, and it's a welcome (if occasionally playful) engagement with some 21st century feminist material. The son takes care of the irresponsible and drug-addicted father, the Girl preys upon the over-the-top drug-dealing criminal (who upon inviting the Girl back to his apartment, promptly turns on techno music, blows three lines of cocaine, and lifts weights). It doesn't end well for him.

In high-contrast black and white, there are some beautiful landscape shots as Amirpour recreates a fictional Iranian border-oil town in Southern California. Oil refineries and dust call to mind True Detective's first season. Produced by Elijah Wood, the connections to some of his darker, more graphic-novel work like Sin City are apparent.

The dialogue is also all in Farsi, which is a great change of pace that further sets the fresh film apart from your standard vampire fare. It also owes a lot to the exceptional Swedish import Let the Right One In (not the American remake); a moody monster movie less concerned with vampire mythology and more focused on ambiance and relationships. It's a serious film that never takes itself too seriously, much like the self-deprecating Amirpour.

She discussed the film afterwards, comparing the "moral vampire" protagonist to "kind of like [Showtime's] Dexter," in regard to the creation of a character that killed with some kind of loose ethical bent. This was a slight red flag for me, because I spent 8-9 years of my life watching Dexter, which was a once-promising show that essentially did everything it could to never make the right decisions ever.

Why make this film? "I'm a total freak, I love vampires, I love dancing, and I'm lonely," Amirpour told the crowd. She also described the choice to shoot in black and white as her and her cinematographer "deciding to just come all over the place" with it.

New Directors, New Films is running through March 30th, with a number of screenings held each day at MoMa and BAM's Walter Reade Theater. Scheduling and ticket information can be found here.