ORWELL: 2+2=5

Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning filmmaker Raoul Peck, the director behind the blockbuster James Baldwin documentary I Am Not Your Negro, takes on the life and philosophies of visionary author George Orwell in the expansive and alarming Orwell: 2+2=5. Peck does incredible work transporting Orwell’s words and ideas to our present moment, where the spread of misinformation, the “newspeak” Orwell foretold, has accelerated exponentially, amplifying authoritarian talking points in the blink of an eye. Every day our surveillance state looks more and more like Airstrip One, and Peck is sounding the alarm. Much of the film is drawn directly from Orwell’s personal diary, read in voice-over by actor Damian Lewis (Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Homeland), particularly entries from the period where he was diligently writing his final masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four, as well as his final days in hospital. Peck zeroes in on Orwell the man, showing how his conflicted feelings about his homeland, and his various stations throughout his life, informed a fiercely socialist worldview. From that center, Peck pulls in an incredible range of clips and reference points, drawing widespread connections and unfurling a lineage of wannabe dictators, up to and including Trump. All of it shows just how relevant Orwell’s words and ideas remain, and how urgent our current situation is. ~OO