There are no modern filmmakers as polarising, audacious, or loving as Julia Ducournau. The French director became the first woman to win the prestigious Palme D’Or at Cannes Film Festival in 2021 with Titane, a body horror extravaganza following the journey of a woman whose traumatic injury from a car crash in childhood sets off a tragically bizarre spiral of events in her adulthood. Four years later, she has made her highly-anticipated comeback with Alpha, a psychological drama following a 13-year-old mami (played by brilliant newcomer Mélissa Boros) who returns from school with a tattoo, only to trigger her mother’s (Golshifteh Farahani) fears of a lethal bloodborne disease that slowly turns people to marble. In her struggle, Alpha bonds with her uncle Amin (The Serpent star Tahar Rahim), who is infected with the same illness.
Julia Ducournau has developed a reputation for grotesque images and violence presented in her movies, which have proved rather divisive with audiences. However, as someone who deeply loves all three films she’s made in the last ten years, I can say with confidence that the appeal of her work isn’t the horror – it’s the tenderness.
The film stars Mélissa Boros as the titular Alpha, and Tahar Rahim as her uncle, Amin, who has the same illness
Despite the gruesome moments and left-field narratives, all of Julia Ducournau’s films have one theme at their core: unconditional love in the face of fear. Speaking to HELLO!, the auteur shared her insights into how love and fear go hand in hand, breaking generational patterns, and the A-lister she’s dying to work with.
Why did you want to return to the theme of unconditional love after exploring it in Raw and Titane?
It’s been going through all my films. I can’t envision love in any other way than this: a deep effort of understanding the other, no matter who the other is. I think it has a lot to do with our humanity, the question of what really makes us human. Why do we consider some people inhuman? What’s the difference between us and what society calls them?
No matter who they are, whether it’s justified or not, to wholly and unconditionally love someone is, to me, fight societal norms and exert your freedom to form your own opinion, not only about a person, but also the person you want to be. In that way, I think it’s a very existential matter. It’s not only linked to romance or family, but the term unconditional tests your limits of humanity. It comes with a tremendous responsibility, because when you love someone unconditionally, you have to pledge to yourself that you’re going to respect their boundaries and their freedom.
This is a line that is extremely thin, and there is a big grey area around this – we see this in the character of the mum [in Alpha]. For her, loving her close one so much and having this instinct of overprotection, almost goes beyond the boundaries of what they actually want for themselves.
You’ve spoken extensively about how fear is the real virus in Alpha. Where do you place love in relation to fear?
I really believe it goes with it! It’s a very human reflex. When you love someone, your first instinct is the fear of losing that person. Instantly it takes over, because you just don’t want this to end one way or another. It makes you confront your responsibility towards that person, meaning that you’re not going to let fear intervene within the relationship. That’s where trust comes in, and that’s when it’s a virtual cycle – when it’s virtuous, trust can be generated by fear.
On the darkest side of this coin, fear can generate – on the spectrum of a society – hate, isolation, stigmatisation and it can completely break the social fabric. I think it can also break a relationship in the same way that it breaks the social fabric and the scale of society.
The theme of unconditional love, especially from mother to daughter, runs throughout the film
Why do you revisit the theme of breaking cycles so much in your films?
I wouldn’t say ‘breaking cycles’, because I believe cycles are ingrained in nature, and they’re biological for humans and civilisation in society. I believe that when we are in a dark cycle, which is the case right today, it isn’t something that is infinite. It is going to have an end, and another cycle will appear in reaction to that, which means to me that there is always a balance happening in the end. To me, ‘cycle’ is positive: it means mutation, which equals life.
I believe in breaking patterns, I believe in breaking with the idea that identity is set in stone. I believe in mutation and that life is all about embracing the infinite possibilities of our being constantly, and that implies being open to the fluidity of our identities, of life, and constantly navigating this. To me, it’s so natural it’s almost biological. I want to navigate this fluidity and I think it’s useless to try to define ourselves, or anything, at all costs. I’m all against labels.
Alpha (Mélissa Boros) and her uncle Amin (Tahar Rahim) bond over their shared pain
What can you tell us about what you’re working on next?
I will definitely focus on the body, 100% – the question is in what capacity, and how? For me, it’s all about challenging myself in my apprehension of genre, in trying to start creating my own laws and distance myself a little bit from abiding to the codes of genre, trying to distort them or make more of them myself.
Are there any actors you’re dying to work with?
There are thousands of actors I want to work with – if I name one I will leave a lot on the side, and I feel terrible about this. I do love Jeremy Strong, though. I think he’s a great actor.
Alpha (2025) is in cinemas nationwide this Friday, 14 November.
© Courtesy of CURZON
© Courtesy of CURZON
© Courtesy of CURZON
