Alpha

Julia Ducournau, the Palme d’Or-winning director of TITANE (2021), returns with another tale of bodily breakdowns and visceral horror with ALPHA—an elliptical, dystopian drama that reimagines the early years of the AIDS crisis, when Ducournau herself was a young girl. Set in the 1980s in a fictional port city that resembles Marseille, the film weaves together a grim coming-of-age narrative with a fantastical premise, in which a mysterious blood-borne disease turns its victims’ flesh into marble. The heroine is a rebellious 13-year-old girl named Alpha (Mélissa Boros), the daughter of a single mother and doctor (Golshifteh Farahani) with North African roots. Early on, Alpha is given a tattoo at a house party, which becomes grossly infected, suggesting that the tattooists’ dirty needle carried the fatal sickness. A mood of dread dominates given the uncertainty around Alpha’s well-being, and the unexpected arrival of her uncle (Tahar Ramin), a heroin addict, further destabilises her school and family life. Thanks to its cast’s vivid performances, ALPHA manages to balance out its more spectacular elements with a powerful sense of vulnerability, ultimately achieving unexpected grace. (Beatrice Loayza)

In the presence of Julia Ducournau.
On Monday, October 27 at 8 PM, a talk with Julia Ducournau will take place at the Metro Kinokulturhaus/Kinosalon.
 

Julia Ducournau: CORPS-VIVANTS (2005, K), TOUT VA BIEN (2007, K), JUNIOR (2011, K), GRAVE (2016), TITANE (2021)