This is no straightforward allegory, nor a lecture on societal failure. The exact time period remains ambiguous and the focus lies instead on the intimate, human scale, with the story of a family in free fall: a mother (Golshifteh Farahani), trying to hold together the pieces of her life while navigating the fallout from her drug-addicted brother (Tahar Rahim) and raising her teenage daughter, Alpha (Mélissa Boros), both struck by a new, mysterious illness.
Where Titane was loud, brash and confrontational, Alpha feels more subdued yet just as intense. Ducournau’s direction has grown significantly, still loud and with her singular style but also more controlled and with a newly found maturity. There is a sadness that pervades every frame and an unexpected poetry, with her striking representation of the illness's symptoms and a particularly an unforgettable ending.
The film plays also with chronology and perception in ways that are purposely disorienting. In one sequence, Alpha is seen at various ages within the same scene, as her personal trauma and that of her family are too much to bear for someone of her young age.
Scenes of heightened panic set in a eerie, near-abandoned hospital, where cadaverous bodies lie unattended seem to exist suspended in time, in an undefined and near apocalyptic timeline within the main narrative, echoing the real-world trauma of the early AIDS crisis, when misinformation and prejudice reigned. The open homophobia of the time is also evoked with a narrative thread involving Alpha's English teacher, played with much restrained by Finnegan Oldfield. For viewers old enough to remember those years, Alpha will bring back some painful memories. For younger audiences, it may feel more like a fever dream. Either way, the impact is undeniable.
Golshifteh Farahani is the film’s emotional anchor, all in pain, frustration and determination. Tahar Rahim in a very physical role and never chasing sympathy delivers such a raw performance. As for Mélissa Boros as the titular Alpha, she never plays the victim, embodying a quiet resilience and navigating her teenage emotions with both confusion and strength.
Alpha is a cinematic gut-punch, angry but infused with humanity. The result is a film as bleak as it is beautiful, formally audacious and ultimately emotionally shattering.
Review by Laurent de Alberti
Star rating: ★★★★★
Official Selection, in competition
Alpha. Directed by Julia Ducournau. Starring Mélissa Boros, Golshifteh Farahani, Tahar Rahim, Finnegan Oldfield...
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