Alpha review: Trauma film engages audiences with its unusual story
‘Alpha’ uses a familiar but mutated disease to explore a mother-daughter relationship and their past trauma.
Each time cases of a new disease begins to rise, there is panic. This is especially true when the mortality rate is high. In most instances, we stop or slow the spread of infection by solving the root cause, or developing a treatment, vaccine or antidote. However, those processes tend to be long and, in the meantime, many people become ill and die. This also arouses fear and anxiety, which can result in ostracizing or even casting out the sick. In Alpha, people are contracting a deadly sickness at an exponential rate and a teenager faces potential exposure.
Alpha (Mélissa Boros) is the 13-year-old daughter of a single mother (Golshifteh Farahani), who is also a doctor at a nearby hospital. One night at a party, Alpha has too much to drink and wakes up with a tattoo on her arm. With little memory of how it got there, it’s possible she’s contracted “the virus” from a dirty needle. Her mother orders a tetanus shot and a test for the infection. When word gets around Alpha’s school that she may be sick, the other kids tease, humiliate and abuse her. Meanwhile, her mother’s long forgotten brother, Amin (Tahar Rahim), returns to complicate matters with his addiction and related illness.
Writer-director Julia Ducournau skillfully devises the parallels between HIV/AIDS and the virus in the film, so the comparison is unmistakable. The fictional virus similarly transfers through bodily fluids, primarily affecting intravenous drug users and homosexuals. However, rather than rack the infected bodies with traditional ailments, the virus calcifies them, turning people into marble-esque statues. The fatality rate is 100 per cent, permanently capturing their painful final moments in stone.
It’s the 1980s and early ‘90s all over again. Everyone is afraid they can catch the virus by sharing space with someone who is infected. The resistance to educate people about transmission in spite of scientific proof perpetuates the myths. Healthcare workers abandon patients as they refuse to treat them. Partners suffer in silence because they can’t risk ostracization by association.
Initially, viewers may expect Alpha to be in trouble for getting a tattoo — or more accurately, carving a brand into her flesh. But the concern is far more tangible than social. The risk of using a dirty needle that could lead to infection is a dark cloud that looms over her. Alpha’s occasional hook-up, Adrien (Louai El Amrousy), compounds her anxiety by blaming her for potentially infecting him. The hypocrisy is he does so while ignoring his own dangerous behaviour.
Alpha’s mother’s fears bring her drug-addicted brother back into their lives. Her past haunts her and she’s afraid of having to treat her daughter’s potential illness like she has her brother’s. Through flashbacks, audiences see the mother bring Amin back from overdoses more than once and how difficult each near-loss was for her. This traumatic past still weighs on her and the prospect of repeating it is terrifying.
In spite of being an atheist, Alpha’s mother even entertains a superstition out of desperation. Her mother believes a “red wind” is responsible for any serious ailments and you must flush it away with water. Amin recognizes his sister’s insistence that Alpha consume large amounts of water and calls her on it. This becomes just another point of contention between the siblings.
The story shifts focus midway through the film. As Alpha’s mother becomes further convinced Alpha must be infected, she begins to insolate them from the outside world. Alpha’s need to break free manifests in a claustrophobic fever dream, which leads to a profound realization. As the past and present blend together, the narrative becomes more muddled. It intends for viewers to follow visual cues to untangle the web, from hair styles to colour palettes, but the crossovers can be confusing.
Ducournau makes movies about body trauma that border on body horror. The physical transformations of the sick in this film are unsettling, yet impactful. But it juxtapositions this with a story that becomes increasingly less defined. Her unconventional narratives push the boundaries of traditional storytelling, which may not be accessible for everyone. Nevertheless, she must be commended for engaging audiences, and encouraging them to question what they see and understand.
Director: Julia Ducournau
Starring: Mélissa Boros, Golshifteh Farahani and Tahar Rahim
