Origin

Director: Ava DuVernay

Starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal & Niecy Nash

Thu 4 Apr 7.30pm      Book Now

Duration: 140 mins
AGE Rating: Cert 12A
Adults £10
Under 16s £5

The unspoken system that has shaped America and chronicles how lives today are defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.

This is the dramatisation of Isabel Wilkerson’s attempt to explain racism as an aspect of the caste system. Aunjanue Ellis gives a poised and charismatic performance as Wilkerson herself, a writer who finds in 2012 that there is something lacking in the intellectual left’s response to the Trayvon Martin shooting; the blanket condemnation of “racism” does not seem to go far or deep enough. She is herself married to a white man, Brett (a typically likable, smart performance from Jon Bernthal). She is shocked but given pause when her adored mother (a lovely performance from Emily Yancy) suggests that Martin was slightly rash in walking around the way he did, and her mother was in no way justifying the killer’s actions. Guardian review

Heartbreaking and illuminating, all at once. It’s full of emotion, as we get the story of Isabel Wilkerson’s personal life and the trials she faced leading up to the publication of Caste, as well as reinactments of significant historical events that inspired the thesis. The acting was, all around, fantastic. The breakdown of the thesis at the core of the movie made sense, and the storytelling about the author herself kept the movie compelling. IMDB review

Nominated for  the Golden Lion at the Venice Film  Festival

3 stars “A heartfelt look at a journalist challenging the concept of race”: The Guardian

“This may be the most important biopic of a book ever made”: Rolling Stone

4 stars “At its best, it holds a poignant power”: Empire