Origin

Venice Film Festival #20 – Sala Grande

It’s an incredibly ambitious move to adapt such a profound and important novel, but Ava Duvernay does it with such a unique and delicate precious that you would be hard pushed to not leave emotional. The film explores the idea of caste, based on the novel Caste: The Origins of our Discontent, something I actually was not familiar with, but what I loved was how digestible the concept was to people unfamiliar with it and actually gets to some level of depth as well. It goes without saying that you will probably learn more about caste by reading the book, however the film really does manage to give a well rounded picture of the thesis of the book. I also appreciate how the film doesn’t tell you how to feel, it presents its thesis and allows you to choose how much you agree with it based on the film presented.

People seem to be having an issue with the way the film was structured. It flips between the author’s personal life and her researching the book. I honestly loved how these flowed together, and I feel like learning about her life only enhances the other aspects of the film. Having the film be a slow process of research as well, where we are learning alongside the author, is a genius way to tell the story. It allows the third act to really shine as you have been on this journey with the author. People will claim it was preachy or its basically just the movie saying the message at you, but I really respect the different approach to filmmaking. Having it be a narrative allows the film to create a personal connection to the story while also being so heavy.

The emotional parts really worked for me as well, for as much as caste is explored beautifully, the author’s life is just as wonderful. It’s heavy, but I feel like pairing this with her journey of writing and researching makes it all the more weighty. I was a mess. You could have emotional moments in a film that simply don’t hit, whether that be cause of how they’re filmed or just a lack of connection to the characters, but I think from the start you are immediately connected to her and her life which helps the film.

Aunjanue Ellis is absolutely phenomenal here. She plays both the inquisitive parts and the emotional parts so well. She is the reason it is so emotional, her performance is just devastating. The cinematography as well just added this real beauty to the film. I really loved this, it’s not without its issues but for such a new approach to telling this story I think it was unreal