When it comes to the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival, there’s any number of in-competition titles that could win the coveted Golden Lion. But a top sleeper pick may be Ava DuVernay‘s “Origin,” which has its world premiere on the Lido on September 6. Based on Isabel Wilkerson‘s 2020 bestseller “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” the film isn’t an adaptation so much as a fictionalized account of how Wilkerson prepared to write a book that examines American racism as a caste system.
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After DuVernay read “Caste,” she knew she wanted to adapt the book, but with a more intimate approach. “After you read it, you want to talk about it, and you want to ask questions, and you want to dive deeper,” the director told Vanity Fair for a new first-look at the feature. And Wilkerson’s life proved to be the gripping story DuVernay wanted. So while “Origin” is indeed steeped in the ideas of “Caste,” it’s foremost a adventure that follows a woman writer around the world as she both grieves the recent deaths of loved ones and investigates a frame-shattering topic. “It was a self-fashioned project that was a globe-trotting adventure,” DuVernay described her film, “an intellectual journey of this Black woman writing this piece, where she’s unraveling mysteries of our humanity, and why we are the way we are to each other.”
Wilkerson initially thought DuVernay wanted to make “Caste” into a documentary like the filmmaker had done with 2016 film “13th.” But DuVernay posited a different idea. “I explained that it would be important for folks to feel emotionally connected to someone in order to take us through the explanation of what “Caste” is,” said the director. “It has to be personal.” Wilkerson agreed, and the pair talked weekly over the phone for six months as DuVernay prepared the script for “Origin.” “She just handed it over in a really extraordinary way that was quite profound to the experience,” the director added. “I want the film to be a salute to the reverence that she has for life, the rigor that she has for her work, and to try to put that in this motion picture that would tell the story as I interpreted it through her sharing with me.
Aunjanue Ellis plays Wilkerson in “Origin,” her first lead role of her career. Ellis is coming off her first Oscar nod for 2021’s “King Richard.” And DuVernay thinks Wilkerson is the perfect role for Ellis to play. “I think that she is an actor of outsized power, and I always wondered and was angry about the fact that I’ve never seen her in a lead,” said the director. Ellis also stars in the “The Color Purple,” in theaters this Christmas. Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Niecy Nash-Betts, and Nick Offerman also star in “Origin,” but it’s Ellis’ movie front-and-center. “This is a film that asks people to center a woman’s interiority and her intellect,” DuVernay explained. “We are offered those films with men at the center often. This film asks the same thing, except the character doesn’t usually look like the kinds of people we follow. I’m interested in the reaction to that.”
As for DuVernay, she embarked on a globe-trotting journey similar to Wilkerson’s to prep directing “Origin,” traveling to Berlin and Delhi to catch up with people mentioned in “Caste.” To be able to dive deeper into these seeds that Isabel planted, to research them further, and to bring them to life was a big task, and it was a beautiful task,” the director said. “It was so fun, following the trails that she started, and trying to make them fully blossom in pictures.” But DuVernay had to forge her own path while making the film. She and producing partner Paul Garnes secured independent financing for the film and shot it very quickly: over only 37 days in three different countries. “Not doing it wasn’t an option,” DuVernay said. “Altering it to fit into a studio box wasn’t an option. I understood that we were going to have to go back to our indie roots.”
The result? DuVernay will be the first African American woman to have a feature film have its world premiere in competition at Venice. How will it fare against the likes of Yorgos Lanthimos‘ “Poor Things” and Bradley Cooper‘s “Maestro.” Find out by following The Playlist’s coverage of the festival here.
Stay tuned on a theatrical release date for “Origin.”
