Raoul Peck on his connection with George Orwell

“I must admit,” Raoul Peck says from his book-lined Parisian apartment, “George Orwell was not top of my list of authors who I thought would fit my current view of the world.” Born in Haiti and shaped by an extraordinary life under the Duvalier regimes, his family fled in 1961 and he was educated in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, New York, Orléans and Berlin before taking a film degree and later chairing the French state film school.

In his new film, 2+2=5, Peck builds a portrait of Orwell from the writer’s own words, voiced by Damian Lewis, and splices scenes from adaptations ranging from a 1954 BBC version to Michael Anderson’s 1984 film and even the Apple Super Bowl ad. Newspeak and modern political slogans rub alongside clips from Animal Farm, footage of troop parades and images from Iraq, Yemen and Gaza, a sensory montage that brings Orwell into the present.

France, Paris

raoul peck, george orwell, 2+2=5, damian lewis, animal farm, newspeak, 1984 film, super bowl, iraq, gaza