Alpha

From the director of Raw (2016) and the Palme d’Or-winning Titane (2021) comes another widely unique exploration of the body and identity. When 13-year-old Alpha (Mélissa Boros) allows a classmate to give her a tattoo at a typically hedonistic high school party, the explosive reaction of her doctor mother (Golshifteh Farahani) seems to go beyond natural parental concern. The fear behind her anger is due to the appearance of an increasingly prevalent new virus that turns its sufferers to marble, a blood-borne virus that can be spread through shared needles. Mother and daughter find both comfort and further anguish in the reappearance of Alpha’s uncle Amin (Tahar Rahim), a recovering drug addict and fellow sufferer of this inexplicable new condition. While Ducournau’s allegories are clear, it is her moving depiction of the trio’s support for each other and their fine performances that linger.