Origin (2023)

Powerful and Moving Drama - Origin review by GI

A strong film with a purpose. It's touching, thought provoking and at times very moving. This is a drama that focuses on the life of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) whose bestselling book Caste:The Origins Of Our Discontents and how she came to write it is the focus of this docudrama. Isobel is shocked over the killing of a young black man who was doing nothing but walking home through a white neighbourhood and when her aging mother offers a view about the murder Isobel begins a journey looking at what drives people to hate and sees that it's more than racism especially after she studies how the Nazis used the segregation laws of the USA to construct their plans for the Holocaust. The film is structured with flashbacks to incidents in history but mostly follows Isobel's visits and interviews around the world, in particular India where she sees the awful caste system of bigotry still alive and thriving. You could argue this would be a more interesting documentary rather than a narrative exploration of the subject but it's still a strong film that should invoke shock and revulsion.