Alpha – French Film Festival Review
Not one to shy away from confronting themes, highlighting and exploring them through disturbing premises, unflinching visuals and conflicted characters, filmmaker Julia Ducournau could be considered an acquired taste when it comes to movies. But there is no denying, her most recent feature films, Raw and Titane, are exciting additions into extremism cinema canon, and their thematic impact is just as strong as the disturbing nature of the premises. Her latest film, Alpha, follows the formula as well, but unfortunately for the first time, not to the same results as her previous works.
Alpha, the titular character, is a 14-year-old living somewhere in coastal France, in a time where a rare blood disease has ravaged the world, turning its victims slowly into marble. Ducournau tells this story over two time lines: the past in which the disease first begins to spread and how the fear and paranoia of the world, and the present where a rebellious Alpha begins to have her own concerns about the disease when she gets a home-job tattoo from her friend at a party.
Alpha is definitely Ducournau’s most visually cinematic endeavour yet – and that is saying something based on how visually phenomenal her previous films are too. But, the make-up work on the people turning marble, the violent dust storms that are ravaging the world, and the dynamic cinematographer that captures the horrors of reality showcase a filmmaker who has gone from technical strength to strength throughout her filmography.
Ducournau’s ability to get underneath the audience’s skin with body horror is shocking and effective. The marble-turning skin, that cracks and chips away at the slightest of touches, is disgusting and brutal, only made worse by the screams and cries of the people afflicted by this disease. There is also a plotline involving Alpha and her heroin-addicted uncle which involves graphic use of needles that is squirm-inducing. Even Alpha getting her tattoo is shot in a violently visceral way that makes something that feels slightly innocuous and rebellious, an act of grotesqueness.
However, outside of the technical standouts, Alpha is possibly the weakest entry into Ducournau’s work. Plain and simple – the film is slightly boring. Despite Ducournau’s attempt at telling what feels like a very personal story about a young girl growing up during an obvious allegory for the AIDS crisis of the 80s, this 135 minute film doesn’t have enough substance overall to justify its, nor does it dive deep enough into the personal relationships between Alpha and her uncle/mother/friend to emotionally drive the story forward.
The structure of the plot, and the use of two concurrent timelines, is more confusing than coherent, as Ducournau attempts to play around with the form and structure to make something a bit more profound (of which the ending is a slightly too on-the-nose confirmation of this), but the execution is sadly just not there. The mix of a confusing storyline and an overlong, drawn out plot ends up making for a cinematic experience that is a slog to get through.
Alpha is Julia Ducournau’s first miss as a filmmaker. However, it’s not one that is out to stain her reputation as one of the most riveting, extremist filmmakers working today as there are still the things we love about her work on screen here, the potential is just not executed well.
Alpha is playing at the 2026 Alliance Francaise French Film Festival
