In 1946, George Orwell retreated to the remote Scottish island of Jura, terminally ill and racing to finish the novel that would define him — and perhaps us. That novel was 1984, a towering work of dystopian fiction whose words and phrases echo through the halls of AI labs, surveillance states, and algorithmic governance.
In Orwell: 2+2=5, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) surveys the writer’s final years to understand how a man shaped by poverty, imperialism, and war authored a warning we’ve yet to heed. Peck’s film is neither hagiography nor a traditional biography: Through a powerful assemblage of archival footage, contemporary media, and literary narration (voiced by Damian Lewis), Orwell’s work resonates as prescient commentary on our own paradoxical present. Drawing from Orwell’s full body of work — from Burmese Days to Down and Out in Paris and London — Peck shows how language becomes ideology, fiction becomes prophecy, and a dying writer’s final manuscript might be the most urgent mirror of our time.
Missed it at VIFF? Catch it at the VIFF Centre after the festival.
Raoul Peck
Damien Lewis
USA/France
2025
English
Book Tickets
Credits
Executive Producer
Zhang Xin, William Horberg, Joey Mara, Maiken Baird, Jessica Grimshaw, David Levine, Courtney Sexton, Richard Perello, Erin Edeiken, Tom Quinn, Dan O’Meara, Johnny Fewings
Producer
Alex Gibney, Raoul Peck, George Chignell, Nick Shumaker
Cinematography
Julian Schwanitz, Ben Bloodwell, Stuart Luck, Aera, Maung Nadi, Roman T.
Editor
Alexandra Strauss
Original Music
Alexeï Aïgui
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