Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

Jon Bernthal

Niecy Nash-Betts

Emily Yancy

Finn Wittrock

Victoria Pedretti

Jasmine Cephas Jones

Isha Blaaker

Vera Farmiga

Audra McDonald

Connie Nielsen

Blair Underwood

Nick Offerman

Stephanie March

Myles Frost

Suraj Yengde, Ph.D

Donna Mills

Michael "Spike" Topoozian

Cristin König

Franz Hartwig

Jakob von Eichel

Thai Douglas

Matthias Miller

Daniel Lommatzsch

Max Schimmelpfennig

Mieke Schymura

John Hans Tester

Leonardo Nam

Bryan Terry Shell

Ann-Sophie Heier

Ingo Hülsmann

Holger Handtke

Felix Goeser

Luis Lüps

Konstantin Lindhorst

David Bredin

Matthew Zuk

Hannah Pniewski

Jessica Fontaine

Steven Allen

Gigi Pereira

Will Baker

Wyatt Werneth

Monica Patankar

Zing Ashford

Akil Jackson

Malachi Malik

Gissette E. Valentin

Prakash Dhingra

Abhishek Arun Bhalerao

Shahid Khan

Jyotsana Siddharth

Ishaan Yadav

Dhrubo Jyoti

Snehalata Siddharth Tagde

Sarah Navratil

Tatiana Harman

Abigail London

Danielle Burr

Raphael Allan

Lennox Simms

Allan Jones

Emerson Smith

Avery Gibson

Allan Wilayto

Bryan McClure

Keller Fornes

Laurene Powell Jobs

Melinda Gates

Tilane Jones

Anne Wojcicki

Spencer Averick

Regina Miller

Aisha Coley

Kimberly Steward

Ava DuVernay

Ina Mayhew

Audra Avery

Mark Dillon

Trish Navarro

John Sanchez

Jacqueline Jacobson Scarfo

Wyatt Winborne

Matthew J. Lloyd

Kris Bowers

Dominique Dawson

Coya Elliott

Isabel Wilkerson

Sarah Perlman Bremner

Paul Goodwin Garnes

Drama

Origin

ARRAY Filmworks

United States of America

English

based on novel or book

woman director

Manuel São Bento

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://fandomwire.com/origin-venice-film-festival-review-a-must-see-educational-story/

"Origin brilliantly transposes the pillars of caste from Isabel Wilkerson's book to the big screen through an incredibly revealing, genuinely fascinating narrative, despite becoming clear that the source material is better suited to a documentary.

The exceptionally human performances of the entire cast, especially Aunjanue Ellis, compensate for some lack of balance between emotionally personal dialogues and weighty lectures. Impactful imagery and an extremely stirring score make the audiovisual experience even more captivating.

It's not without issues, but it's one of the most important stories to watch/read this century."

Rating: B

CinemaSerf

The acting is all really quite adequate here, but it's not really that important to the fascinating underlying premiss that underpins the theory that race, in itself, might not be the reasons for the hierarchical nature of a society that always manages to create sub-classes. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor offers her own engaging perspective on author Isabel Wilkerson who is invited by a publisher to offer a more considered and less reactionary appraisal of race relations following the murder of a young black man who just happened to be in the wrong place (a white neighbourhood) at the wrong time. The audience know full well from the outset what has happened here, so that's not especially important to the plot either - it's her search for a rationale. That search attempts to draw parallels between the plight of the African American citizenry with the victims of Holocaust and of the system of caste that prevails in India. By spending a section of the film in Germany and then in India, we are exposed to a more internationalist view of just why society is made up of the have lots, the haves and the have nots - and at just how little much of that has changed for centuries. The comparison she develops works surprisingly convincingly, if not without it's flaws, and Ellis-Taylor acts well as a sort of sponge for the philosophies that emerge. The one element that it rather studiously avoids is religion. That isolation does rather compromise the authenticity of any conclusion as it doesn't acknowledge that so often the behaviour and structures of cultures are dictated by those atop them in some form of priesthood - whether they be Brahmin or Cardinal. There are a few familial sub-plots to add a bit of drama to the story, but I found them a little unnecessary as the theory elaborates more. It does come from a very specific American perspective - I'd be interested to see how it might turn out if it were to be remade from a Jewish or Indian point of view, but as it is - it's a thoughtful exercise in what makes human strata function and endure.

Brent Marchant

Those who believe that institutionalized systemic racism is fundamentally an American problem should probably give a serious look to this latest offering from writer-director Ava DuVernay, best known for the superb historical drama, “Selma” (2014). Based on the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by best-selling author Isabel Wilkerson, the film examines how organic prejudices are actually a worldwide phenomenon that may or may not have anything specifically to do with race but are more readily attributable to matters of caste. While the picture indeed examines this practice from an American perspective, it also addresses it from the standpoint of the dictates employed in Nazi Germany and in the longstanding Indian caste system, where race was/is not an inherent issue. Rather, the institutionalized discriminatory practices in these locales (as well as in others) were (and in some cases still are) driven by the implementation of artificial distinctions that have been established and perpetuated based on other characteristics but that have had the same kinds of negative impact as those driven by race-based policies. The filmmaker explores how author Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis Taylor) went about researching and writing the book on this subject, a project undertaken at a time when she was dealing with the fallout from a series of personal tragedies involving her mother (Emily Yancy), husband (Jon Bernthal) and cousin (Niecy Nash-Betts), giving her a reason to pick herself up and carry on with her life. Admittedly, the multiple story threads involved in the narrative and the way in which they’re organized could have used some tweaking for greater clarity and smoother connectedness, and the author’s theories could have stood to be presented a little less overly intellectually at times. However, in the end, the movie’s themes successfully come together to create a captivating and eye-opening hypothesis that we’d all be wise to consider seriously. What’s more, the depiction of Wilkerson’s personal story is filled with a series of strongly emotive moments that are sure to tug heartily at the heart strings, so keep the hankies handy. The film also features an array of fine, small-role supporting performances from the likes of Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood, Audra McDonald, Finn Whitrock, Vera Farmiga, Myles Frost and Lennox Simms. In the end, the revelations exposed here could well make you sad for the needlessly sorry state of humanity. But the picture also provides a deeper, more insightful understanding of what’s fundamentally wrong with humanity, providing us with a key that just might help us find our way out of the current social morass with a solution that could potentially help us finally fix things for good.

Thrilling 30"

Acclaim 30"

Official Trailer

'Origin' with Ava DuVernay, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Niecy Nash-Betts & more Academy Conversations

How Ava DuVernay and Paul Garnes made ORIGIN as an Independent Film | TIFF 2023

The Films that Transformed Ava DuVernay and Paul Garnes' World | ORIGIN | TIFF 2023

ORIGIN at TIFF 2023 Q&A with Ava DuVernay

Official Teaser Trailer

Origin( 2023)

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A review by Manuel São Bento

Written by Manuel São Bento on Fri Sep 08 2023

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