‘Alpha’ (2025)

Opening on 13-year-old Alpha (Mélissa Boros) who has passed out at a house party, presumably from drug misuse, ‘Alpha’ opens on the young girl as she is given a hand-poked tattoo. Returning home to Maman (Golshifteh Farahani), Alpha’s single mother, a doctor, the girl is immediately scorned as Maman uncovers that the tattoo was done by a shared needle.

With her world slowly imploding, Alpha is ostracised at school as a possible carrier of a deadly autoimmune disease that slowly turns people to marble. Bullied by classmates and rejected by friends, Alpha is also unpleasantly surprised one day to come home and find Amin (Tahar Rahim) who has moved into their home. Maman’s brother, Amin, stays with the two to finally get clean and stop using hard drugs for good.

With writer and director Julia Ducournau’s previous two features receiving high praise and recognition, many would be primed to anticipate much of the same in terms of shock value and highly controversial subject matter. Notwithstanding the highly outrageous, bizarre and unique films that Ducournau has given us before, ‘Alpha’ delivers a more intimate and tame story that examines grief, anguish and abandonment.

Maybe not the most subtle by way of analogy, the disease claiming so many people’s lives is contracted through bodily fluids. Turning its victims to stone, the diseased eventually succumb to the virus and remain only as polished marble statues. Examined through Maman’s work at the hospital and through her brother, Farahani provides a direct link to someone watching and trying to cope with the disease spreading like wildfire whilst there is nothing modern science can do about it yet. Watching Amin waste away and eventually demand Maman not to resuscitate him, ‘Alpha’ manages to strike hard and deliver outstanding moments of humanity as examined through death.

Choosing to deliver the narrative by melding scenes from the past and present, ‘Alpha’ grows more and more disjointed towards the end, as past and present are presented abstractly at the same time. Even though the culmination is visually mesmerising, the melding of time and overlapping themes may prove to be too frustrating for some as all comes to a whirlwind finale that leaves Maman and Alpha without Amin.

One of the more exciting parts of the feature may be its visual effects and body horror. The infected exhibit symptoms including coughing up dust and calcified skin, which spreads all over one’s body. The weight of the disease can literally be felt as Alpha sees her teacher at a clinic, whose boyfriend has been infected. Another touching and agonising moment, an infected person’s solidified foot is dragged around in agony as the person struggles to move and is tired of being ogled. Despite his condition, talking with Alpha helps the girl see that the sick person is more than just sickness and has to be remembered as more than that.

Awaiting her test results, Alpha is bullied by her peers and scorned by her mother. Her only true outlet comes when Amin treats her like a regular person, without fear, constant concern and coddling. The two break free from their home one night to live it up, providing both with a little respite and serving as a reminder that they’re still human.

In parallel, Maman and Amin’s relationship, stretching back decades and numerous overdoses, delivers an even more complex examination of fear, anger and concern. As Maman has lived through years of Amin’s substance abuse, it is revealed that she had asked him not to come to her again, as Alpha was still very young and Maman wanted to give her a normal life. Eventually contracting the virus, Amin is taken in by Maman. His slow deterioration and want to overdose to end his life breaks Maman as she wants him to live out what’s left of his life, but sees daily through her job what that life will look like.

Overperforming in terms of style, ‘Alpha’ is a visual treat with one scene outperforming the other. Tonally and thematically, the story may feel a little overstuffed as the abstract nature of the narrative can already feel a little tiresome, leading to some ideas fading away as the film reaches its end. Perhaps a little scattershot and reiterative, ‘Alpha’ has its shortcomings. Nevertheless, the body horror subgenre has gained a worthy addition with very strong performances from the main cast with a strong hook and a number of very effective interpersonal moments that ground the main theme of the film.

Score: 3/4