Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5
At this year’s Sydney Film Festival, I watched some alcoholic binges of nuclear proportions (Twelve Moons/ Islands); one of the worst musicals of all time (The End); a sharp-edged portrait of the wealthy (Dreams); a dark, morally complex tale from Iran (It Was Just an Accident); a slippery French mystery (Vie Privée); a dry, unsettling German drama (Mirrors 3); and a devastating journey through the desert (Sirât); yet the most engaging films from a very fragmented selection were the documentaries. One to One: John & Yoko, Justin Kurzel’s Ellis Park, Sadie Frost’s Twiggy, and Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5, all proved to be memorable experiences.
Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5 deserves a special focus because it’s a film that was crying out to be made, and Peck has done his subject proud. The filmmaker should appreciate Orwell’s many lives, because his own biography is just as chequered. Born in Haiti, Peck spent his formative years in the Congo. He would study industrial engineering and economics in Germany and work for a year as a cab driver in New York City. From 1996-97 he was the Haitian Minister of Culture!
To read Orwell today is to be struck by the predictive value of his work. He may have been too pessimistic about the year 1984, but the world is trying to hard re-fashion itself in conformity with his worst imaginings. At our current rate of progress (or regress), by 2084 we’ll have gone beyond the Orwellian template.