At first glance, Isabel Wilkerson’s best-selling nonfiction book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents — an expansive examination of global caste systems — may seem more suited to a documentary feature than a narrative film. Yet with Origin, director Ava DuVernay (Selma, When They See Us, 13th) has transformed Wilkerson’s work into a deeply personal story rooted in the author’s own experiences and research process.
Academy Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Wilkerson, who begins crafting her book in the wake of great personal tragedy. Her research spans caste systems in America, Nazi Germany, and India, all of which feature in Origin‘s first trailer, and all of which are connected. As the film’s version of Wilkerson puts it, “All of it is linked.”
Origin will have its world premiere Sept. 6 at the Venice Film Festival, with a North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 10. It is slated for a late 2023 release from NEON.
