AFFFF26 Alpha

After winning the Palme d’Or for Titane, Julia Ducournau returns to Cannes’ Competition with ALPHA, a haunting and intimate film that continues her singular exploration of the body, fear, and transformation. Set in the port city of Le Havre between the 1980s and 1990s, the film follows Alpha (Mélissa Boros), a restless 13-year-old living alone with her mother (Golshifteh Farahani, Brother & Sister, AF FFF23), a doctor working in a sealed hospital ward where patients are treated for a mysterious and frightening virus. Their fragile equilibrium is disrupted when Alpha’s uncle Amin (the remarkable Tahar Rahim from Monsieur Aznavour, AF FFF25), infected by the virus and ravaged by addiction, suddenly moves in. One night, Alpha returns home with a tattoo. A single letter. An act that seems trivial, almost innocent, yet one that raises an unbearable doubt: could she have been infected? From that moment, things shift and fear creeps into everyday gestures. As anxiety spreads and trust begins to fracture, ALPHA becomes a tense coming-of-age story shaped by dread and denial. In the shadow of illness and fear, the film asks a haunting question: how far can a mother go to protect her child, and at what cost for both of them?