Titane” director Julia Ducournau made a triumphant return to Cannes Monday evening with her follow-up “Alpha,” a mother-daughter infection thriller that earned a thunderous 11.5-minute ovation after its premiere - one of the most glowing in-person receptions thus far at this year’s film festival.

Alpha turns the formula inside out, centering a family drama against the background of an unnamed plague that closely resembles the AIDS epidemic. Bodily transformation and laceration are by no means absent,

Premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Alpha begins as the eponymous 13-year-old (Mélissa Boros) returns home with a crude tattoo on her arm. This poorly-drawn ‘A’, her very own Scarlett Letter you might say, leaves her mother (Golshifteh Farahani) apoplectic.