From Ava DuVernay of “Selma” fame comes “Origin,” a deeply immersive, hybrid film about race and caste all over the world, but especially in the United States. Beginning with shaky-cam shots of the last tragic moments in the life of Trayvon Martin (Myles Frost), we soon meet Black Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) and her white husband Brett Hamilton (Jon Bernthal).

At a party, a colleague of Isabel’s (Blair Underwood) implores her to write a piece about Martin’s murder for his newspaper. She demurs saying that she wants to write another book, following her bestseller “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” But she becomes fascinated with the young man’s death. At the same time, Isabel and Brett have to deal with getting her aged mother (Emily Yancy, TV’s “Sharp Objects”), the widow of a Tuskegee Airman, into an assisted living facility. Suddenly, we are introduced to August Landmesser (Lenox-born Finn Wittrock), a German shipyard worker who falls in love with a Jewish woman during Hitler’s reign.

“Origin” is a work of stream of consciousness. Writer-director DuVernay, adapting Wilkerson’s 2020 text “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” has tried with considerable success to recreate the process of writing a book and living a life, all at the same time. It is frequently jarring.

But the film’s amazing cast keeps you riveted. We are suddenly back with Martin, mortally wounded and crying out for help. We hear about a 1941 anthropological study entitled “Deep South” by two Harvard-educated couples, and see the research that they put into it in the 1930s, including a stint in Berlin. What might it be like for Black female homeowner Isabel to be alone in her flooded basement with a MAGA cap-wearing Dave the plumber (Nick Offerman)? DuVernay finds the subtleties. Family-oriented Isabel shares her life and ideas with beloved cousin Marion (Niecy Nash-Betts).

What DuVernay has done in this adaptation of Wilkerson’s book is to include Wilkerson’s biography and the turbulent history during which the book was written. Thus, the film straddles both non-fiction and fictionalized biography, making “Origin” more like “Miss Potter” (2006), which incorporates Beatrix Potter’s life into a film that includes depictions of her work, than an adaptation such as “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which is based on a book by David Grann, but is not about Grann.

DuVernay shows us a book burning in 1930s Berlin as seen by the two, horrified African-American co-authors of “Deep South.” As a liberal German friend of Isabel’s, Connie Nielsen comes this close to “white-splaining” the difference between subjugation and extermination to her. Isabel uncovers evidence that 1930s Nazi lawyers borrowed from U.S. laws to alienate and isolate German Jews.

Yes, at times “Origin” seems like the anthropology class we did not sign up for, particularly when it travels to India to show us the state of the people formerly known as Untouchables. But I was happy to be enrolled and enthralled. “Origin” is at times a graduate class in racial history. But the real power of the film can be attributed to a widely neglected, awards-worthy, fiery lead performance from a great Ellis-Taylor (“The Help”). Why has she been overlooked in this awards season?

(“Origin” contains mature themes and profanity)

“Origin”

Rated PG-13. At the AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay and suburban theaters

Grade: A-