Curzon Film today announces the official trailer for the atmospherically haunting and humanistic drama ALPHA from Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker Julia Ducournau (Raw, Titante). Starring Tahar Rahim (The Serpent, The Mauritanian), Golshifteh Farahani (The Patience Stone, Extraction), the young actress Mélissa Boros and Emma Mackey (Sex Education, Emma), the film screened at the London Film Festival and will be released in cinemas nationwide from 14th November, 2025.
ALPHA is a quiet revolution in genre filmmaking, telling the story of Thirteen-year-old Alpha finds life with her mother turned upside down at the same time that a mysterious virus is plaguing society. Ducournau’s genre-bending film inventively blends body horror with a coming-of-age tale. And once again, the filmmaker boldly and viscerally explores the intense love and complexity of familial bonds.
Building on the techniques established in her first two films, RAW and TITANTE. Julia Ducournau takes another leap forward with ALPHA incorporating the strategies and conventions of horror into something deeply personal and affecting. ALPHA wants to get under your skin, viscerally recreating the social panic and paranoia that spreads during a pandemic and the irrational stigma that can attach to illness. But more than that, it is about trauma and memory and the complex relationship between the sensing body and the thinking mind. How do we react when our close personal and familial relationships are disrupted by more primal reactions to addiction and illness. How do we process the unthinking mechanics of our biology or the indifferent progress of a virus when it causes damage to the ones we love.
Importantly, the film unfolds across shifting timelines — a choice that is not immediately signposted. Past and present blur together intentionally, echoing the confusion and fragmentation of memory, grief, and psychological distress.
As Ducournau continues to expand the definition of genre cinema, ALPHA stands as a testament to her fearless, boundary-pushing vision — a visually arresting and psychologically rich film that will resonate deeply with fans of contemporary arthouse drama as well as those open to more experimental forms of genre storytelling. ALPHA opens in UK cinemas from 14th November, 2025.
