Alpha * * *

Years ago, when  the whole world was an off-leash dog park.

           This is set twenty thousand years ago when the world was quite a different place, as were the people and their relationship to animals.  Domestication of animals was not to come for another five thousand years, (or so my scant research tells me). Nevertheless the crux of this story is of a young man developing a relationship with a wolf.
           Aside from the questionable timeline, the film throws up many other dubious concepts which you will have to overcome.  Like, did they recognise families in those times? Did they have values such as honor and leadership?  Was nobility and heroism acknowledged?  Did they grieve as we do?
           But the biggest question it threw at me is, why did the men travel hundreds of kilometers, over difficult terrain to kill buffalo?  I mean, how are you going to get even one back home, never mind the many which they slaughter? I think it would have made more sense if the whole tribe had nomadically gone to the hunting fields.  Anyway, that is the story, and it was a big deal for a young man to be invited along with the grown men to do the hunting - a coming of age.
            So it is, that the teenage son of the tribal Chief goes along.  Then, through terrible circumstances, he gets left behind.  Injured and vulnerable he is attacked by a pack of wolves. He fights them off but ends up isolated with one of the wolves he has injured in the fight.  Thus, as they both heal, the relationship between them builds and continues to build as he determinedly makes his way back to the tribe through the winter.
           Alpha sits in a strange place: A little too brutal for children and a little too coy for adults, nevertheless it is a moving adventure, featuring a young person and loyal animal against all odds.
         The wilderness photography is absolutely beautiful and despite it's questionable scenarios the wordless ending is accurately prophetic.