Girl In The Night
Luka Marčetić‘s Slovenian dark crime comedy Girl in the Night won Fantastic Fest 2026’s Audience Award, and voters absolutely made the correct choice. Kleptomaniac Rok lives a pretty uneventful life, seeking small drips of adrenaline with petty thievery. When he encounters a mysterious girl with a head wound, Rok’s intrigue gets the better of him, and he makes excuses to be in her presence.
Nighttime shenanigans ensue. Activities include retrieving a lost ferret, moving apartments, and intense physical interrogations. Like Rok, the audience assumes Iza is a hooligan, but we soon discover her goal is merely to help people in her own curmudgeonly style. To keep her attention, Rok creates a villain character whom he claims stole her bike. Keeping up the lie without life-altering consequences proves challenging. The clock is ticking for this vigilante-sidekick duo.
Urban Kuntarič is superb as Rok. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and we are along for the rollercoaster of thrills and sadness. Lara Wolf somehow gives our leading lady equal parts spunk and moroseness. She has a living cartoon character quality somewhere between emo and tomboy. Their chemistry is cinematic magic. Witnessing Kuntarič pine for her good graces while Wolf appears to eschew his advances is dazzling.
Girl in the Night has found its audience at Fantastic Fest 2026. The cinematography, editing, and lighting are gorgeous. The deadpan delivery, the long takes- it’s all delicious weirdness. The film is undoubtedly one of the year’s best genre gems.
“Girl in the Night” can be seen next week on September 28th at the Strasbourg Film Festival for its European premiere and then to the Sitges Film Festival in October in the Noves Visions section. Noves Visions continues to be the section reserved for the most unique, experimental, and ground-breaking productions, for filmmakers willing to challenge traditional genre conventions and explore new ways of depicting the fantastic.
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