Body Horror Meets Family Strife in Julia Ducournau’s Bleak & Brilliant Titane Follow-up – ryan

Four Years Ago, French Director Julia Ducournau won the palm d’Or her delightful Shocking movie Titania with it Story About Grinding Metal and Gyrating Bodies. Now, She Returns to the Cannes with Competition Film Alphaa much more personal project that has HER USUAL HALLMARKS OF BODY HORRROR DIGGING DEEPER INTO AN EMOTIONAL Story About Family.

Ducournau has a lot on her Mind with AlphaWhich, on its surface, is a tale about the aids epidemic (to use the way allegory here would discount the way looks the subject so boldly in the face). In this movie version of France, a desaase has swept the country, Turning those who get sick marble-like statues as their illness progressses. Thought Alpha is overwhelmed by its the themedic concertns, ducournau still creates arresting imagery in the Harsh Color Palat and Dystopic World She Depicts. Along With Absolutely Stunning Performance, Alpha Transcends Its Flaws to be Another stunning, destined-to-be-diviSIs film from docournau.

Alpha emotionally grueling & visually stunning

Stunning Ground performances A Bleak Story

The Story of Alpha Starts Quite Simply before Expanding Outward – Its Title Character (Played with a Fearless Intensity by NewComer Mélissa Boros) is introded at a party, Drugged out of Mind as cigarette smoke around her and a nameeleeleele boy gits a tattoo with a corner. Ducournau zooms in on the Needle Piercing the Skin Slowly, Black Ink Mixing with Deep Red Blood. It’s the first of the many startling images. When Alpha Comes Home and Her Mother (Goleshifteh Farahani in the Best Performance of Her Career) Spots Her New Tattoo, Their World Begins to Shatter.

Alpha’s Mother Works at the Local Hospital and Immediately Blings Her Daughter in For Testing, Awaiting the Results to See Whether Has Been Infective by this Unnamed Disease. The Ripple Effects of Alpha’s Potential Infection Out Much Farother than she Expects, HAFT she recipes her results. Suddenly, Alpha’s Classmates Want Nothing to Do Her, Refususing to Get Into The Pool to Swim Pencil to Her or Subtly Shifting Away from Her She She Esters Classrooms and Walks Down the Hallway.

It Also Begins to Drive Her Mother A Little Bit Mad – As Her Paranoia Grows Waiting for Her Daughter’s Test Results, she resorts to believing in Old superstitions on by her time Mother, ons she used to vigorously denouncce. She hopes to exorcise the Red Wind from Alpha, her Fears of Disease Mixing with Deep-Seated Scars. The Red Wind Does Physically Manifest ITSELF in the Film – there are Relationships Gusts Hitting Their Apartment Building at Night, Shaking the Rafters Surround the Building Like a Skeleton.

The Streets are Also Lineed With Red Dirt and, in One Skene, the Wind Picks up and Clouds the Entire in Scarlet Dust. What’s real and what’s imagined in Alpha is consistently blurred and that’s where some of the movie Falls apart and Losses Track of Its Themedic Concerns. IT’S NOT ENOUND TO DERAIL The Film, but it’s a noticeable flaw.

Not so Noticeable, Though, Against Alpha’s Stunning Cast. Alongside Boros and Farahani, Tahar Rahim Giives a Physical Performance is Maybe More at Home in a Possession Than a drama, but that works Because of this. Rahim Contorts His Body in an Elegantly Skeletal Range of Motion, Despite All the Horror We See Elsewhere, Might Be Some of the Most Terrifying Images in Alpha.

Alpha isn’t a scary film, though. There are the moments of Bone -Chilling Fear – Watching This Disease Claim Its Victims, the anxiety of Waiting for Alpha’s Test Results, and a Few Other Moments Best Not Spoiled. But all of this is underscored by a deep sadness that permeates the film in every aspect, from the way it is (eather bright orange or hollow blue-glys) to the way alpha’s family is forcered to reckon with all the desse has. One at the Center of the Film.

Some May Find This Despairing and Baffling, But Ducournau Finds a Strange Layer of Hope and Love Beneath All the Dust and Grim. Regardless, that the Director Wold Follow Up Titania With Such a personal and emotionally draining the story prove that docournau is as fearless as the characters in her film, Willing to go places no one Else will. What she finds there may not be to Everyone’s Liking, but the Its Certainly Worth Watching.

Alpha Premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The film releasses august 20 in theater.

Alpha

8/10

Release Date

August 20, 2025

Runtime

128 minutes

Directory

Julia Ducournau

Wriers

Julia Ducournau

Producers

Eric Altmayer, Nicolas Altmayer