Origin is an extraordinary film which is part-biopic, part-love story, but mostly a socio-political essay. It recounts the academic and personal journey of African-American author Isabel Wilkerson to a fascinating and courageous hypothesis that argues for the reframing of critical race theory in America.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Wilkerson (a luminous Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) is the brain behind the 2020 anthropological bestseller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Prompted by the 2012 murder of black teenager Trayvon Martin, Wilkerson argued that race issues in the US were not down to “racism” as we consider it, but that in fact several places around the world have historically oppressed peoples on the basis of social stratification, specifically caste.
Director Ava DuVernay has confronted American racism before in her civil rights-era film Selma and the documentary series When They See Us. Here, she dramatises not just the principles unearthed by Wilkerson’s study but the author’s literal voyage of discovery, as she visits Germany and India and finds parallels with the way the Nazis in the 1930s and 40s, and Indian society to this day, enforce a tyranny of exclusion and oppression over certain groups of its people.
It’s an eye-opening thesis, one that DuVernay nicely articulates through employing an enthralling mix of genres: beautifully acted drama between Ellis-Taylor and Jon Bernthal as her devoted husband; archive footage neatly glued into recreations of true-life historical stories; and the depiction of current day horrors which is hybrid-documentary – specifically the Delhi street scenes, in which members of the lowest-ranking Dalit caste, the so-called “untouchables”, are lowered into sewers which they clean by hand.
Ellis-Taylor is superb as Wilkerson guides the audience through her examination of ideas, using a whiteboard to spell out various points, and having earnest discussions with her non-academic relatives at family barbecues. Crucially, we never feel lectured to, but instead, brought along on a frequently absorbing expedition.
While some may feel that mixing Wilkerson’s personal tragedies with her sociological investigations muddles the film’s tone or lessens the impact of its thesis, these unanticipated details delivered the most moving and heartbreaking screen moments I’ve experienced in years. By fleshing out Wilkerson as a whole, real woman, Ellis-Taylor avoids the caricature of the blinkered, unemotional, intellectual workaholic.
Granted, DuVernay does lean heavily on the music to lead her audience through emotions of devastation and exhilaration. Composer Kris Bowers’ score is unsubtle yet enjoyable – and arguably helps propel us through a two-hour, 20-minute running time, a length necessary to tell Wilkerson’s story but potentially an endeavour for the viewer.
DuVernay, who made the 2018 fantasy film A Wrinkle in Time in New Zealand, asked our own Stan Walker to write for the soundtrack, and his song I Am, with its te reo chorus, feels fitting as an apt provocation to the NZ viewer, and surprising, given there’s no explicit mention of the Pacific in DuVernay’s film.
As a glorious piece of cinema and an insightful and well-articulated idea, Origin is a must-see for those curious to learn something new, and to view the state of our world through a fresh lens.
Rating out of 5: ★★★★★
Origin, directed by Ava DuVernay, is in cinemas now.
