ORIGIN (12A) HHHHI Writer-director Ava DuVernay's [...]

Published date08 March 2024
Publication titleHuddersfield Daily Examiner
HHHHI

Writer-director Ava DuVernay's beguiling biographical drama sees Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) deliver an empowering talk about her non-fiction book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.

"You don't escape trauma by ignoring it," she professes. "You escape trauma by confronting it."

Her words resonate deeply, delivered a matter of months after the murder of George Floyd and before Donald Trump alleges the 2020 US presidential election was stolen from him.

We are the uncontested winners with DuVernay's picture.

An elegant, non-linear script deftly traces connections between historical touchstones in Wilkerson's bestseller, which explores how groups have been dehumanised throughout history.

Tragedies of the past ripple through time to the fatal 2012 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin (Myles Frost) in Sanford, Florida, by a self-appointed neighbourhood watch captain.

Ellis-Taylor delivers an emotionally raw performance as Isabel,

Brett (Jon and who begins the film tending to her...

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