"Ducournau describes Alpha as a family drama first and a coming-of-age movie second, focusing on unresolved trauma and its resonance across generations."
"The film is set in the '90s and uses an imaginary disease that causes humans to slowly turn into stone as a metaphor for the paranoia during the AIDS pandemic."
"Alpha's title character, a troubled 13-year-old, comes home from a party with a tattoo, which deeply unsettles her mother, a physician specializing in the unnamed illness."
"Ducournau reflects on the '90s as a 'very dark age' in terms of empathy for marginalized sick people, highlighting the film's deeper social commentary."
Julia Ducournau's film Alpha premiered at Cannes and diverges from her previous body-horror works. Set in the '90s, it uses an imaginary disease that turns humans to stone to reflect the paranoia of the AIDS pandemic. The story follows a troubled 13-year-old girl, Alpha, and her mother, a physician dealing with the illness. The film explores themes of family trauma and generational impact, with Ducournau emphasizing its nature as a family drama and coming-of-age story rather than a horror film.
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