Peck explores world and words in ‘Orwell: 2+2=5’

Cinema | December 16th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

The brilliant film essayist and documentarian Raoul Peck tackles the looming shadow of contemporary American and international totalitarianism in “Orwell: 2+2=5.” Following a May debut at Cannes and a fall theatrical release, the troubling and worthwhile movie is now available to rent from the major streaming services. Meticulously researched and exactingly visualized, Peck’s critique would reverberate even more like a desperate and impassioned cri de cœur were it not for the sober text and matter-of-fact clarity of George Orwell’s own words. From personal letters and diary entries to the instantly recognizable propaganda of authoritarian Newspeak, the famous English author’s ideas (narrated by Damian Lewis) are no longer warning us against the possibility of Big Brother. Big Brother is already here.

“Orwell: 2+2=5” is not quite as stimulating or satisfying as Peck’s 2016 masterwork “I Am Not Your Negro,” but the film easily belongs on this year’s list of finest nonfiction features. Peck rotates among a few categories of visuals, incorporating photographs of Orwell (the movie was made in cooperation with the Orwell estate) to develop one thread that primarily communicates the biographical outline taking the young writer, christened Eric Arthur Blair, from his 1903 birth in Motihari, India to the Isle of Jura in Scotland, where he finished “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” his most famous novel. In 1950, shortly following the book’s publication, Orwell died in London of tuberculosis complications.

Peck’s most urgent focus, however, is not a chronological life history. A few critics have argued that the film downplays or even ignores Orwell’s misogyny, homophobia and classist snobbery, but Peck should be credited for articulating how some of the writer’s shortcomings and blind spots became essential for self-reflection. For example, Peck uses Orwell’s line “In order to hate imperialism, you have got to be part of it” as a concise way of explaining how “inferior” white Brits could, as colonialists, feel superior to the indigenous population under the rule of the Crown.

Of the media translations of “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” Peck cuts frequently to clips from Michael Radford’s solid feature, released in the titular year and starring John Hurt as Winston, Richard Burton as O’Brien and Suzanna Hamilton as Julia. Michael Anderson’s 1956 version, which uses the numerical title “1984,” as well as the 1954 BBC “Sunday-Night Play” television adaptation with Peter Cushing, also accompany several scenes. “Animal Farm” pops in and out as well, with Peck making efficient use of Ralph Steadman’s unforgettable illustrations in strategically-placed instances. Well-designed motion graphics are frequently put into play, including a sequence on censorship and book-banning. Central sections tackle the real-world analogues to “War is peace,” “Freedom is slavery,” and “Ignorance is strength.”

Throughout, Peck incisively connects the dots between Orwell’s ominous and prophetic treatment of nationalism, the erosion of privacy, the surveillance state, the cult of personality and the construction of narratives in which objective truth vanishes under the noxious cloud of frequently repeated lies. It will come as no surprise that the director adds the current leader of the United States to a lengthy list of fascist and quasi-fascist dictators and strongmen. Trump’s own comments contradict reality at a fatiguing rate. Given the man’s decades-long ability to slip any meaningful accountability, “Orwell: 2+2=5” paints a picture as bleak and despairing as life in Oceania.

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