In  Alpha, Jan-Willem van Ewijk creates an intense and subdued drama of grief, in which what is left unsaid carries at least as much weight as what is spoken.

When Rein (Reinout Scholten van Aschat) retreats to the Swiss Alps, far away from his life in the Netherlands, his father Gijs (Gijs Scholten van Aschat) follows him there. Three months after the death of Rein’s mother, they try to reconnect, or at least to tolerate one another.

What follows is a fragile choreography of rapprochement and repulsion. Small gestures, hesitant conversations, and underlying tensions build up into a portrait of two men who each deal in their own way with loss, guilt, and an inability to be intimate.

Against the backdrop of the overwhelming mountain landscapes, a film unfolds that is as physical as it is emotional. The surroundings mirror their inner state: at times still and clear, at others disorienting and elusive.

The casting of father and son—even off-screen—gives Alpha a rare intensity. What emerges is a raw and sincere portrait of grief, in which the pain remains palpable, even when words fall short.