TheEvil Gaming

Produced by Mark Bakshi, with exquisite cinematography by Martin Gschlacht and wonderful screenplay by Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt, Albet Hughes, the director and story writer of ALPHA has presented an epic drama of man’s struggle in the wilderness. ‘ALPHA’ is the story of Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a young boy not quite on the verge of becoming a man. His father, Tau (Johannes Haukur,Jr), is the chief of a nomadic hunting tribe. He wants to teach his son the tricks of the trade and be his rightful successor as the future leader of the tribe. So Keda is forced to join his tribe of primitive hunters to learn the ropes of the business of hunting. But the boy is not interested in the harsh ways of the game of survival. He is a sensitive, gentle soul and, in his mother’s words, doesn’t want to ‘lead with his spear but his heart’. Separated from his tribe by an accident -- thrown off a vertical cliff by a massive bison -- his odyssey of survival through endurance and perseverance begins. The timid young boy learns to be tough and resolute in his intense struggle to survive. The movie opens with a narrator’s voice and then plunges into some unintelligible primitive language that is translated for our comprehension through subtitles. Director Albert Hughes, who is also the writer of the story, creates a poignant tale with superb craftsmanship. Albeit a rather conventional theme of human survival in the wilderness fighting off beasts, Alpha is the drama of the primal but indomitable human spirit. The sensitive, tender-hearted soul grows in dynamism as Keda follows the stars to find his way back home with the help of his animal friend. The wolf that attacks Keda gets wounded by the boy, but is brought back to life with Keda’s tender loving care.The wolf then becomes the real trainer to hone Keda’s killer instinct which his father had failed to instill in him and Keda learns to be a master huntsman establishing his superiority over the animal. But he acknowledges the wolf’s tenacious struggle to protect and help him and calls him Alpha. Alpha is another word for Leader. An edge-of- the-world movie, Alpha is indeed a beautifully shot film. It is indeed reminiscent of man’s prehistoric days of survival before the Ice-Age that transports you back to extraordinary locations of mountain ranges and vertical cliffs, of snow-covered plains and lush green forests of Europe some 20,000 years ago. The spectacular visuals of the wilderness, the special effects along with dramatic sound effects have made the movie quite awesome. In conclusion, a prehistoric epic, Alpha is man’s spiritual quest for survival fraught with frequent peril emphasizing the theme of his courage and perseverance to win. It is also the saga of the cordial relationship between man and animal sharing space on planet earth for harmonious co-existence. In other words, if you like to know what man went through to reach the civilized world we live in today, perhaps you can catch the film showing at the theatres now.