Raoul Peck’s “Orwell: 2+2=5” Premieres as a Daringly Relevant Documentary
Raoul Peck stands out as a particularly insightful filmmaker. Rather than simply relaying facts, he provokes thought, encouraging viewers to identify underlying patterns and connections. His new documentary, Orwell: 2+2=5, premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, embodies this approach. Whether you’re intimately familiar with George Orwell’s body of work or a newcomer, Peck’s film offers fresh perspectives on why Orwell’s ideas remain strikingly relevant, even 75 years after his death. While books like Animal Farm and 1984 may have once seemed like extreme warnings, they now resonate as accurate reflections of our current reality. In his novels and insightful essays, Orwell anticipated the challenges we face today. Orwell: 2+2=5 argues that we should share his concerns.
Peck’s 2016 film I Am Not Your Negro, which creatively reconstructed James Baldwin’s unfinished work, is a standout film, offering a condensed history of Black racial identity in America during the latter half of the 20th century. In Orwell: 2+2=5, Peck explores a similar concept: a writer’s final work can inadvertently become their most definitive statement. The film opens with the beginning of the end: in 1946, Eric Arthur Blair, known as George Orwell, sought refuge on the remote Scottish island of Jura. It was there that he penned his last complete novel. 1984 tells the story of Winston Smith, an ordinary citizen in a futuristic society who secretly dreams of rebellion while dutifully rewriting history to suit his government’s agenda. This makes him a “thought-criminal,” a term coined by Orwell, leading to his capture and brutal indoctrination.
Published in 1949, the novel preceded Orwell’s death from tuberculosis, a disease he contracted during its writing. Orwell: 2+2=5—named after a mathematical fallacy used by Orwell to illustrate how people can be manipulated into accepting lies as truth—recounts Orwell’s final years and highlights his work as a defense against those who seek to control our minds. Complex and wide-ranging, the two-hour film may leave you struggling to keep pace.
However, this is precisely what makes Peck’s work, particularly this documentary, so compelling. Orwell’s writing feels remarkably contemporary, characterized by a clarity and directness rarely found in contemporary writers. Excerpts from his works, voiced by Damien Lewis, are juxtaposed with news footage of war-torn streets in Basra, Iraq (2003) and the sorrow of a father mourning his child in Gaza (2023). As we consider Orwell’s observation that “To be corrupted by totalitarianism, one does not have to live in a totalitarian country,” a brief clip of George W. Bush declaring war on Iraq appears. Peck excels at connecting words with images. His thinking is nuanced, yet grounded. He efficiently covers Orwell’s life, including his time with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma in the early 1920s, an experience that deeply impacted his political views. (He grew to despise his involvement in “the actual machinery of despotism.”) The film also incorporates clips from movies and television, including adaptations of 1984 (Michael Anderson’s 1956 version and Michael Radford’s 1984 film), David Lean’s 1948 Oliver Twist, and Sydney Pollack’s 1985 Out of Africa. Peck skillfully pieces together the world that shaped Orwell, clarifying the intricacies of British class politics.
Above all, Peck passionately presents Orwell as a figure from the past who holds the key to our future. This may seem like an exaggerated claim until you delve into Orwell’s work. He was both insightful and witty, far from being tedious or preachy. He possessed a profound understanding of . In 1984, he created chillingly memorable slogans that served as stark warnings. Peck highlights some of these: “Freedom is slavery” and “War is peace.” These jarring contradictions, presented as truths, are meant to disorient and reprogram us. It’s easy to imagine how an authoritarian leader could exploit them and how easily the public could be swayed. Peck doesn’t explicitly state this, as it’s self-evident. Orwell: 2+2=5 feels like the most important documentary of our time. Another quote from 1984: “Ignorance is strength.” If you don’t feel the weight of that statement, you’re not paying attention.
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