Origin Review: Convincing, Engaging & More Conventional Than It Seems

The essential project of Ava DuVernay’s Origin is a challenging one. Its source material, Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, is a non-fiction book that compares America’s treatment of people of color, Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews, and India’s treatment of Dalits (formerly called untouchables) to show that much of what we ascribe to racism is better understood as a caste system. This film aims to explore that idea through a work of fiction, depicting Wilkerson’s research process and her life at the time. I have not read Caste, and so cannot comment on how well Origin adapts it, but the tension between fiction and non-fiction is a major part of the viewer’s experience regardless. What works for me and what doesn’t have left me torn, and though I ultimately do recommend this movie, it’s entirely possible that what I’m actually recommending is Wilkerson’s book.