25/04/2025 - The Cannes Première line-up will see the filmmaker unveiling a documentary about the famous novel 1984, produced by Velvet Film and Jigsaw Productions and sold by Goodfellas

Having already enjoyed selection three times on the Croisette (first, with his fiction films The Man on the Shore, which competed in 1993, and Lumumba, screened in the Directors’ Fortnight in 2000, and then with his documentary Ernest Cole, Lost and Found [+see also:
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Nominated for 2017’s Best Documentary Oscar and crowned with both a César and a BAFTA award for I Am Not Your Negro [+see also:
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film profile], as well as being selected multiple times in major international festivals (including in competition in Berlin in 2005 via Sometimes in April), the Haitian filmmaker has this time decided to focus his energies on 1984, the world-famous novel by English writer George Orwell. Interweaving archive footage of previous adaptations of 1984 with a tapestry of resonant images from the 21st century, Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning director Raoul Peck masterfully dissects Orwell’s prescient vision and its vital lessons for our times and the future of our society.

It’s 1949 and George Orwell finishes what will be his last but most famous novel, 1984. This powerful and provocative documentary delves deep into Orwell’s final months and visionary works to explore the roots of the vital and troubling concepts he revealed to the world in his dystopian masterpiece… Doublethink, Thoughtcrime, Newspeak, the omnipresent spectre of Big Brother… disturbing truths which resonate ever-more powerfully today.

Orwell: 2+2=5 is produced by Parisian firm Velvet Film (directed by the filmmaker himself) and American outfit Jigsaw Productions (Alex Gibney) alongside Neon, Closer Media and Anonymous Content. The movie’s music is composed by Alexei Aigui (who’s teaming up with the director for the 6th time) while world sales are entrusted to Goodfellas.

(Translated from French)