There are only a few films in a lifetime that I experience that feel like more than just simply watching a movie. For me, the movie Origin, written and directed by Ava DuVernay, did not feel like I was simply watching a flick. I was taking a masterclass. I was engaging in an experience that would resonate and stick with me for the long term.
Based on Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents, the narrative of Ava’s film explores Isabel’s research around crafting this book and asking many questions around the corrosion of what prejudice, oppression, and the construct of race does to our society defined by a system called caste.
The film stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Isabel Wilkerson, a woman who during this disabused process, works to prove race is not responsible for our oppression, but a Hindu-like society-based system called caste, a division of privilege and social class as opposed to ethnicity. However, during this time Isabel is surrounded by tragedy in her life as she navigates the loss of loved ones in her life.
Based on true events, this is a heavy film to process. Its heaviness is intentional as it’s clear that Origin is meant to be indelibly printed in your mind and your soul as you think about how and why these oppressive social constructs were created in the first place. And to be clear, Origin is not meant to answer any of the questions Isabel has or explores in the film. In fact the didactic tone of this narrative, albeit very informative, is more so for you to seek your own answers about what these questions mean to you.
The opening of Origin is a gut punch because it starts with one of the seminal moments in American history on race, and that was the murder of Trayvon Martin. As the scene re-enacts the night Trayvon Martin was killed, the real 911 call dispatched that night was used in this scene. It’s clear that DuVernay was deliberate in wanting the viewer to remember and understand that although this is a cinematic depiction of a real case, this moment is what prompted Isabel to start her formative research. It was that 911 call that was the cultural zeitgeist that kept our eyes on the injustice of what it is to be Black in America.
Isabel has a loving marriage and relationship with Brett (Jon Bernthal) who is supportive in her efforts about the case. She also is taking care of her elderly mother (Emily Yancy). Her editor Amari (Blair Underwood) also encourages her to write about the case when there’s a bit of uncertainty on her part. In fact, he encourages Isabel to listen to the 911 dispatch call.
When Isabel listens you can witness a whirlwind of emotions form on her face. The scenes cut between Isabel listening and the re-enactment, which sucks you into the moment as it’s happening. You either have to be in it as a viewer or turn your head away as it can be too much to bear knowing this actually happened to an innocent child.
As Origin explores what the caste system is, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, the Dalit scholar, appears in the story to provide the South Asian perspective of how Indians suffered under discrimination. Poverty, the yoke of life’s greatest heartache was not only a part of his life but also how he was treated as a circumstance of his social status.
What DuVernay does is intentionally show examples of marginalized people and communities and specific acts they suffered as a result of oppression. For example, the Middle Passage that brought enslaved people from Africa and the gruesome conditions they experienced; a Black boy who played Little League in the 1950s being prohibited to swim in a public swimming pool with his white colleagues.
Then there are the supporting stories. One is of August (Finn Wittrock), a former Nazi, and Irma (Victoria Pedretti), a Jewish woman. The two fall in love and get engaged. In parallel to that story is anthropologist Allison Davis (Isha Blaaker) and his wife Elizabeth Davis (Jasmine Cephas Jones), who, similarly to Isabel herself, do their own research on racial divides but have to do so undercover living in the Jim Crow South.
The narrative structure of this film is anti-establishment. It’s unapologetic. It’s in your face, and it goes against the grain. Could there have been a scene here and there that needed a cut? Sure. But I’m not bothered by the extraneous content. I welcome it. The scenes in this film can easily be cut on their own and be made into shorts and have their own analysis. Finally there’s the poignant relationship between Marion (Niecy Nash-Betts) and Isabel. Niecy Nash-Betts was like a human bulldozer; she just ran over me with every single emotion and left me in awe with her performance.
I’m also amazed how Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor managed to keep herself together through the production because it took a lot out of me watching her radiate on screen dealing with so much emotional trauma. I can’t imagine what it was like for her marinating in these scenes as an actor.
I really enjoy movies that make you think, that make you wonder, that make you ask questions, and that spark conversation. Origin is most certainly the film that will do all of those things and hopefully a bit more. Having never read Isabel Wilkerson’s book, I’m now prompted to go to my local bookstore and check it out.
Origin is in selected theaters now and opens in expanded theaters January 19, 2024.
