“Alpha”, interview with director Julia Ducornau

May 24, 2025 5

Julia Ducornau: “Alpha is about a young girl going through a transformation, an on-going mutation”

“Alpha”, interview with director Julia Ducornau Chiara Nicoletti

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French director Julia Ducornau is back in Cannes, the 78t edition with her third film, “Alpha“.

After winning the Palme d’Or in 2021, the filmmaker is again exploring the them of a young girl going through a transformation.

She describes the transformation as an on-going mutation, something that began before the start of the film and continues on after the film is over.

The film is a coming of age as it deals with Alpha (Mélissa Boros)’s struggle to emancipate from the bond she has with her mother, played on screen by Goldshifteh Farahani.

Julia Ducornau introduces, in the film, the threat of a new virus that, similar to Aids in the way it is transmitted and the stigma surrounding it, it turns people’s skin into marble.

The director drives us into this idea of the marble virus and explains how she came up with the idea.

Plot

Alpha, a troubled 13-year-old lives with her single mom. Their world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattooon her arm.

Written by: Chiara Nicoletti

Guest

Julia Ducornau

Film

Alpha

Festival

Festival de Cannes

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