Movie Review

Ava DuVernay confronts history of oppression in educational Origin

The first scene in writer/director Ava DuVernay’s new film, Origin, depicts the beginning of what would be a fatal night for Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, who was shot by a self-proclaimed neighborhood watchperson in 2012. This signals that the film will be a tough watch for any moviegoer, much less those who are tired of seeing Black trauma depicted on screen.

Photo by Atsushi Nishijima

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in Origin.

However, it soon becomes clear that the filmmaker behind Selma and the documentary 13th does not intend for the film to be just about the violence that Black people have suffered through the centuries. Taking inspiration from the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, DuVernay has made a unique film that fronts Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) as a character who essentially takes viewers into the process of writing her book.

One part of the film’s story shows us Wilkerson’s personal life, married to Brett Hamilton (Jon Bernthal) and taking care of her ailing mother (Emily Yancy), among other things. But exposure to the 911 calls around Martin’s killing sends her down a path of exploring the history of oppression throughout the world. This research leads to the central thesis of the book that it is caste – a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification – and not racism that that is to blame for the societal ill.

What follows for viewers feels like a thoroughly engaging visual book report, one that acts almost like a documentary in parts, only with actual actors. Wilkerson travels the world to investigate other examples of oppression, including the Jewish Holocaust by the Nazis and the ingrained caste system in India. These scenes are interspersed with scenes – also featuring actors – showing historical examples of those who tried to stand up to or expose the wrongness of the subjugation.

Every time Wilkerson has a conversation about her research, the debate between her and other people serves as a source of education for the audience, giving a perspective that never fails to enlighten. One sequence which demonstrates a linkage between American slavery and the Nazis' plans in Germany is particularly powerful. Because the talks are in a fiction film, though, they are full of the emotion that can come when people disagree or moments of clarity when a point fully lands.

The film balances Wilkerson’s explorations with her turbulent personal life, and DuVernay manages to weave together the two in a way that complement each other instead of being at odds. Her interracial relationship with Hamilton, the old-fashioned thinking of her mother, and the patient listening skills of her cousin Marion (Niecy Nash-Betts) all inform her thoughts and her writing in one way or another.

Even though Ellis-Taylor’s role calls for her to be a lecturer and interviewer for much of the film, she still imbues the role with deep feeling. You can feel the pain of what her character is doing and experiencing through her soulful eyes. Bernthal, Nash-Betts, and Yancy all put in strong performances, as do actors with more limited screen time, including Finn Wittrock, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Isha Blaaker, and Audra McDonald.

It is said of some documentaries that they make history come alive, and DuVernay accomplishes the same through a fictional lens in Origin. It offers the persuasive arguments that made Wilkerson’s 2020 book a bestseller alongside a story that resonates for the film’s characters and the world at large.

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Origin is now playing in select theaters; it opens wide on January 26.

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Movie Review

Nordic film Fjord challenges cultural and linguistic biases

Photo courtesy of Neon

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In modern society, where fear of “the other” has made many people into insular creatures, it has become easy to get locked into one point of view. The new film Fjord will be a challenging one for many viewers, as it puts forth a situation that confronts narrow-minded thinking and forces even those who think they’re open-minded to re-evaluate their own biases.

Mihai (Sebastian Stan) and Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) are a married couple who have just moved back to Lisbet’s home country of Norway. They have five children, all of whom were born in Romania, Mihai’s home country. The family, which is part of an unspecified Evangelical Christian sect, runs into issues almost right away when their oldest daughter, Elia (Vanessa Ceban), shows up to school with bruises on her body.

A well-intentioned but perhaps overzealous Child Protective Services system gets put into motion, resulting in the children being removed from the home while Mihai and Lisbet are being investigated. The parents, while acknowledging some minor physical punishment, deny doing anything that would cause bruising, and the possible failings of the system mostly get ignored despite a lack of hard evidence.

Written and directed by Cristian Mungiu, the film is an infuriating watch due to its depiction of a system that seems to be oblivious to its own faults. But it’s also illuminating, as the cultural and linguistic divide that exists between the characters in the film could just as easily be applied to those viewing it. Misunderstandings arise as people switch between Norwegian, English, and Romanian, and interpretations of different words or phrases play a crucial role in how people and actions are perceived.

But the film is about much more than just language mix-ups. Mungiu is purposefully vague about Mihai and Lisbet’s religion, but it’s clear that it leans conservative. This puts them at odds with a liberal society in Norway, and more than one character voices their disapproval of the family’s beliefs. The film is framed in such a way, though, that it’s those who are seemingly most progressive who can’t get over their own prejudices, with Mihai and Lisbet rarely being able to object to how they’re being treated.

The cold and forbidding landscape adds to the drama of the film, especially when Mungiu includes side stories from Mihai and Lisbet’s neighbors about, for example, a rebellious neighbor daughter or their ailing father. While those elements don’t impact the plot much, they add complexity to the film as a whole and demonstrate that some characters are more than who they seem to be on the surface.

Stan, who’s had notable roles in recent years in A Different Man and The Apprentice, puts in another solid performance that is less showy. With a bald head and stoic-but-firm demeanor, he brings depth to a potentially unlikable character. Reinsve, coming off the success of Backrooms, is the emotional center of the film and demonstrates chemistry with Stan after co-starring in A Different Man. The supporting cast is all solid, especially the actors portraying lawyers, who bring to life a system that seems much different from that in the U.S.

Fjord does not play out like a typical American film would if it were depicting a similar situation, and by holding back where western storytellers wouldn’t, it allows viewers to make up their own minds on who is right or wrong. Many things go unspoken in the film, and the debate on what should happen with Mihai, Lisbet, and their family continues even after the film ends.

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Fjord is now playing in select theaters.

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