In 2012, the brutal murder of African-American teenager Trayvon Martin sent shockwaves throughout the United States. President Obama’s comments that “if [he] had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” caused some on the right to defend Martin’s stalker-come-murderer, George Zimmerman, as a victim unfairly rebuked by the president. Meanwhile, the nationwide anger and despair sparked by Martin’s murder was channelled into activism, as the Trayvon Martin case became a catalyst for the emergent Black Lives Matter movement. But why, in the first place, did the Latino Zimmerman seek to ‘protect’ a white community from a black man? Why has everything been viewed through the lens of racism? And if the case does highlight systemic racism in the United States, what does that even mean?

These are the central questions posed at the start of “Origin”, a powerful new biopic from director Ava DuVernay (“Selma”, “13th”). Inspired by Pulitzer-prize winning author and journalist Isabel Wilkerson, it depicts the period she spent researching her groundbreaking book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents”, which sold half a million copies within its first year of publication (poignantly, it came out just two months after the murder of George Floyd in 2020). The film begins in 2012, with Isabel turning down her editor’s request to write a standalone book about the Trayvon Martin case. If she’s going to write about racism, she wants to write answers, not more questions. Of the questions Martin’s murder raises, Isabel is shocked by the one her elderly mother poses: “Why didn’t he act in a way to keep himself safe?” Somewhat disturbed by this response, Isabel puts her idea to write about the deeper origins of discrimination to one side. Yet when great personal tragedy strikes, Isabel is spurred to tap into the collective, universal grief of what she describes as “caste”: the rigid, hierarchical social system which fuels oppression across the world.

Rather than adapting the book as a documentary, DuVernay has boldly chosen a fictionalised adaptation of Wilkerson’s life, interwoven with dramatisations of her historical and social inspirations for writing it. From the story of a couple torn apart by the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, to the Harvard social anthropologists going undercover to study race in Depression-era Mississippi, visual representations of Isabel’s thesis weave in and out of scenes from her own life and intense personal grief. These narrative choices are where the film really shines. Almost effortlessly, these parallel scenes make clear how universal the patterns and machinations of ‘caste’ are. Just as Isabel discovers all this through her research and grieves for the generations of people affected, we bear witness to the same patterns of social stratification, dehumanisation, inclusion vs. exclusion and ‘purity’ across time and place. Had DuVernay gone the documentary route, the emotive power of this message would have been lost. The overall lesson of “Origin”, therefore, packs a heavy punch through its storytelling. Though Jim Crow may no longer exist, the caste system it created in the United States, and which ultimately killed Trayvon Martin under the simplistic guise of racism, persists – as do the other ‘caste’ systems infecting societies worldwide.

However, the sheer ambitiousness of “Origin” makes it occasionally feel like a whistle-stop tour through ‘caste’ around the world. Despite being carried by incredibly moving performances and a deep humanisation of its subjects, the number of issues the film grapples with can feel somewhat overwhelming at times. While “Origin” successfully highlights the ‘connective tissue’ between historic and present day injustices, a more thorough explanation with fewer areas of focus may have been even more compelling. Though inevitable in a film highlighting the universality of ‘caste’, some of the cultural and socio-historical ‘origins’ of its manifestations around the world are unexplored, leaving the film at risk of drawing superficial parallels. This might be seen in how the film depicts India’s caste system, which places Dalit ‘untouchables’ at the bottom of society, without more detailed context. A scene in which the names of other groups affected by ‘caste’ are rattled off at speed without further examination, such as the Roma and the Palestinians – the latter feeling particularly emblematic of ‘caste’ in 2024 – emphasises this problem. In this sense, ‘Origin’ provides only an invitation or starting point for audiences to be intellectually curious about its themes.

Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the film imparts both a sense of urgency and collective responsibility to its viewers. In a year when the United States (along with half the world) is heading to the polls, it is no surprise that DuVernay insisted the film come out at this crucial moment in political history. “Origin”, therefore, is a call to action – not just to fight against the bigotry and routine atrocities produced by ‘caste’, but to address how deeply embedded ‘caste’ is in our societies. By highlighting Isabel Wilkerson’s own agency in exploring such deeply rooted, systematic forces of oppression, we as individuals are implored to go on our own journeys to better understand ‘caste’ as a means to fight against it. As one of Isabel’s closing lines in the film so aptly put: “We are occupants of a house with cracks in the foundation; we did not build it, but it is ours to deal with now”. 

“Origin”, directed by Ava DuVernay, is out in UK cinemas now.