Review: Alpha
Cast: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Johannes Haukur Johannesson and others
Director: Albert Hughes

Director Albert Hughes Alpha is a beautiful film that tells about the wonderful bond of friendship that a teenage boy develops with a wolf, when both are put through trying circumstances. Circumstances force both the wolf and the teenage boy to trust each other a little more than they normally would. Soon, that trust turns into friendship and they turn in to a team to take on predators and overwhelming situations. The film is about how trust and kindness helps both man and animal reap rich rewards.

The story is set during the Ice age, when man has only just discovered fire. The humans move around in groups and are more hunters-gatherers than settlers at this point in time. The hero of the film, Keda, is the son of the chieftain of one such tribal group. Like most fathers, Chieftain Tau is worried about the fact that his son is yet to master certain essential skills. He makes consistent efforts at teaching Keda all those skills that he deems are necessary for survival. Be it hunting or making a fire using sticks, Keda struggles. Keda lacks most of the skills that hunters should ideally possess. But he does not want to let his father down and tries his best to please his father. There is one particular characteristic of Keda’s that his group and his father view as a sign of weakness and that happens to be Keda’s kindness. The boy has a considerate and kind heart. As a result, he is unable to, forget killing, even harm an animal. To the group, this is serious trouble.

Soon, it is time for the group’s hunters to go out hunting and thereby bring food food to the entire group. Chief Tau believes this will be a good opportunity for Keda to prove himself and decides to takes his son along with him on the hunt. The group undertakes a journey of several days covering vast tracts of land before sighting a herd of bisons on a cliff.

The group launches an attack on the herd but in the process, Keda suffers an injury and ends up falling from a cliff onto a ledge that is inaccessible to the hunting party. Knocked out unconscious, young Keda does not respond to the calls of his father or their group members from above the ledge. The group, after waiting for Keda to respond, mistakes him to be dead and decides to head back home.

When Keda regains consciousness, he is alarmed to know that his group has left him on the ledge that is exactly in the middle of a mountain. With no way to get down or climb up, a seriously injured Keda realises he is stranded. Soon, vultures begin circling him and that is when Keda begins to apply all that he has been taught to good effect. But while all the skills that he has been taught do come in handy, what eventually saves him is a character trait that he possesses – a trait which led to him being ridiculed. A trait called kindness…

The film tells a heartwarming tale of friendship between a man and a dog. But more importantly, it subtly drives home the point that kindness has been undervalued in human society, right from the Ice Age. The film underscores the true value of kindness and trust by narrating a simple, yet heart touching story that is bound to move audiences across the globe.

This is one gem of a film that cannot be missed!