Late entry: 'Alpha Gang' completes the programme

A group of aliens lands on Earth with one goal: to take over the world. Their disguise? A tight-knit 1950s biker gang, complete with leather jackets, gleaming guns and a nod to Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising. But life in human form soon proves more complicated than expected. Brothers David and Nathan Zellner (Sasquatch Sunset, FFG2024) continue to develop their idiosyncratic universe: Alpha One through Six live together in a castle, as love, fear and confusion gradually throw their carefully orchestrated mission off course. What starts as a bloody sci-fi premise unfolds into a deadpan, energetic comedy, shot like an epic war film by Mike Gioulakis and punctuated by unexpected dance numbers. Léa Seydoux, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Dave Bautista, Chris Pine, Lily-Rose Depp, Bae Doona, Riley Keough and Cate Blanchett make up a stellar cast that plays the absurdity completely straight.

David and Nathan Zellner, directors of Kid-Thing (2012), Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014), and Damsel (2018), also attended the 51st edition of Film Fest Ghent with their tragicomic cult-classic-in-the-making Sasquatch Sunset, which follows a family of mythical Bigfoots over the course of a year as they fight for survival in an ever-changing world.