Movies: Mankind Discovers Man’s Best Friend In “ALPHA”

An epic adventure set in the last Ice Age, Columbia Pictures’ ALPHA tells a fascinating, visually stunning story that shines a light on the origins of man’s best friend. While on his first hunt with his tribe’s most elite group, a young man is injured and must learn to survive alone in the wilderness. Reluctantly taming a lone wolf abandoned by its pack, the pair learn to rely on each other and become unlikely allies, enduring countless dangers and overwhelming odds in order to find their way home before winter arrives.

In a harsh landscape, when the future is uncertain, the bonds we make become our most important.

When language is a barrier, the actions we take reveal all.

And when the early peoples of the earth struggled twenty thousand years ago to overcome obstacles both long-term (a persistent Ice Age) and immediate (survival of the fittest), a historic relationship between enemies was forged. It forever changed the world, creating an enduring poignancy and lasting affection that reflects our shared humanity to this day.

That special connection, between a boy and a wolf, is the stirring saga that is ALPHA. Seventeen-year-old Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee, “Let Me In,” “X-Men: The Apocalypse”) is a Solutrean, part of a creative, resourceful Cro-Magnon tribe living in the area we know as southern France and Spain at the end of the last Ice Age, when most of Europe was uninhabitable, covered in ice two miles deep. Glacial winds blew. Winters were brutal and lasted nine months. Dangerous predators roamed the vast, unpopulated landscapes in search of food. The isolation was extreme, and bonds of family and community were essential for survival.

Keda leaves the safety of his village for the first time, accompanied by his father Tau (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, “Game of Thrones,” “Noah”) and other members of the tribe, to embark on the annual bison hunt, the success of which is essential if they are to have enough food for the winter. Keda is not yet up to the task, however, and his fear leads to him being injured and left for dead in a wilderness many miles from home. The impediments to Keda finding his way back to the village are numerous: starvation, illness, bone-chilling winter conditions, and, of course, predators.

At his most vulnerable, Keda is attacked by a pack of wolves. In his defense, he seriously wounds the Alpha wolf, which the distraught pack abandons.

What happens next leads to a universal tale of discovery and friendship, marked by authenticity, richness of emotion, and stunning visuals.  This is ALPHA.

Joining Australian actor Smit-McPhee and Iceland’s Jóhannesson is an international cast including Leonor Varela from Chile as the Shaman woman, Marcin Kowalczyk from Poland as Sigma, the tribe’s second-in-command; Jens Hultén from Sweden as Xi the leader of the Lion Tribe, Natassia Malthe, who is half Norwegian as Keda’s mother Rho, Spencer Bogaert from Belgium as Kappa the novice hunter, Mercedes de la Zerda from Canada as Nu the hunter and last, but not least, Chuck the Czech wolf dog as Alpha the wolf.

Albert Hughes directs and wrote the story for the original screenplay by Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt.

In Philippine cinemas September 5, ALPHA  is distributed in the Philippines by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.