Girl In The Night (Slovenia, 2026) is a portrait of late night life in small cities or in city neighborhoods that seem empty except for the quiet yellow glow of street lights. It’s a deadpan comedy about how we change ourselves, hoping to be who the people we are attracted to want us to be. And it’s the story of a vigilante, a low stakes superhero, called to address the problem of that community’s missing pets and stolen bikes. Rok (Urban Kuntarič) works the late shift at a convenience store in an unnamed city. He inhabits liminal spaces during liminal hours—places and times where anything seems possible, and the rules of social life seem suspended or more malleable. In his convenience store demimonde, Rok steals candy bars from his work as his co-worker (Maja Sever) sleeps. When Rok meets a woman, a late night vigilante (Lara Wolf), he finally acts on an urge to steal a bicycle—her bicycle—so he can see her again and become her sidekick in the search for her bike. And, perhaps, so he can become the low stakes, low level masked villain he was always meant to be.

Writer/director Luka Marčetić does a wonderful job of capturing the feeling of a city at night when most everyone is asleep. It’s one of my favorite feelings. The embrace of street lighting at night, a more natural white light outside during the day, and the actors’ deadpan affect all enhance the isolated and liminal feeling of the film. I was a little disappointed in its ending. I was hoping Marčetić and the Girl would make a different choice, but the ending is not out of line with everything else that happens in the film. I did enjoy the low stakes crime and heroism after so many galactic battles and cities destroyed in superhero franchise movies. And the low stakes betrayals in Girl In The Night were enough for me to really feel them.

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