29/07/2024 - Produced by BALDR, Lomotion and Staragara, the Dutch filmmaker's fourth feature explores the “changing nature of masculinity in our society”

Jan-Willem van Ewijk’s fourth feature, titled Alpha. [+see also:
film review
interview: Jan-Willem van Ewijk
film profile], will celebrate its world premiere at the upcoming Giornate degli Autori, one of the Venice Film Festival’s independent sidebars, running this year from 28 August-7 September.

The Delft-born helmer debuted with Nu. in 2006, for which he received an Honourable Mention for Best First Feature at the Netherlands Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize at the European Independent Film Festival Paris. Nu. was followed by Atlantic. [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jan-Willem van Ewijk
film profile] (2014), his sophomore feature that screened at many other festivals worldwide, including Toronto, Dubai and Rotterdam. Van Ewijk’s third effort, Pacifica., will be released in Dutch cinemas this summer.

The story of Alpha., penned by the director himself, is billed as an “existential adventure.” After his mother passes away, Rein moves to a small village in the Alps to be immersed in nature, meditate and work as a snowboard teacher. His quiet bubble bursts when his extroverted father Gijs comes to visit. Gijs quickly takes centre stage on a backcountry ski tour with Rein and his friends. He charms the youngsters and flirts with Rein’s new girlfriend Laura, leaving no room for his son. 

It isn’t long before Rein has had enough. He drags his father away from the group and they continue their hike up the mountain alone. The tension between the two men is palpable. Gijs feels increasingly uncomfortable with the steep and dangerous terrain but Rein presses on to the top, ignoring his father’s pleas to walk back down. It isn’t long before nature violently lashes out, turning their petty struggle for dominance into a full-blown quest for survival.

Rein and Gijs are played by actors Reinout and Gijs Scholten van Aschat, who are also father and son in real life. The main cast is rounded off by Pia Amofa, Julien Genoud, Daria Fuchs, Kaija Lederberger and Georgina Giuliana. Key creatives are DoP Douwe Hennink, editor Sander Vos, composer Ella van der Woude, sound designer Vincent Sinceretti, production designer Miha Knific and costume designer Anne-Sophie Raemy.

“Alpha. is a film about the changing nature of masculinity in our society. It slowly strips a father and son of their modern Western privileges, their technology, their personal grievances and their egos, leaving them naked in the face of nature. The film may start in the noisy and cluttered environment of a ski resort, but the story culminates on the silent, frozen and unforgiving snowfields and rock-faces of the high Alps,” says van Ewijk in his director’s statement. 

“Initially framed in rigid, fixed shots accompanied by harsh mechanical sounds and neurotic music, the two men are clearly uncomfortable with each other and their environment. But as their journey into the high Alps progresses, things start to flow more and more; the camera starts moving more freely and the sound of machines makes way for the music of the mountains and the silence of nature.”

Alpha. is produced by Frank Hoeve for Amsterdam-based firm BALDR Film in co-production with Magdalena Welter and Louis Mataré for Lomotion (Switzerland), Jožko Rutar and Miha Černec for Staragara (Slovenia), VPRO, SRF and Blue. The feature received backing from the Netherlands Film Fund, the Netherlands Production Incentive, the CoBO Fund, the Federal Office of Culture, the Slovenian Film Centre and the European Union’s Creative Europe MEDIA programme. September Film is in charge of its domestic distribution, slated next year.