Orwell: 2+2=5 directly confronts the reason George Orwell's name feels increasingly inseparable from political discourse.

The title is taken directly from Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, a concise equation that symbolises the authoritarian playbook. On screen, it's heard in a clip from The Crystal Spirit: Orwell on Jura, the BBC's 1983 film that starred Ronald Pickup as Orwell. Likewise, the documentary picks up during the writer's latter years living on the Inner Hebrides, while writing his final and most famous work, before spiralling back to recount his biography.

Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in British India to what he termed a “lower-upper-middle-class family”, gaining a perception of class and society at a formative age. His education at public schools, including Eton, was followed by a stint in the Burmese police. Orwell: 2+2=5 recounts his return to England and becoming a writer, his involvement in the Spanish Civil War, and his later personal and literary life.

A journalist, essayist, and novelist, Orwell's legacy is acutely felt through his novels. Animal Farm and, in particular, Nineteen Eighty-Four play a strong role in Orwell: 2+2=5, but this documentary shows how the combined weight of his work and biography has contributed to his ongoing relevance. It's not a revelation — Orwellian terms have been invoked in discourse on politics and society for decades — but Orwell: 2+2=5 takes a bold and timely approach to the man and his legacy by exploring his biography and his impact on our language seperately. Where Orwell: 2+2=5 is most obtrusive is in tackling the many Orwellian terms the writer gifted to the language. A powerful sequence breaks down “Newspeak,” “thought police,” “double-thought,” and other terms with real-life examples.

The life of the acclaimed writer sits alongside excerpts from the many written and filmed adaptations of his work, intersperse with news footage, documentaries and AI propaganda, all chronicling key political events from the 20th century right the way through to the events of the past few years. Microbes frequently fill the screen, both a reference to the tuberculosis that would plague Orwell's later years and cause his death at just 46 in 1950, and a further metaphor for the multiplying lines of disinformation and propaganda that have come to not just define the Soviet Union under Stalin, but increasingly, our contemporary wars.

It's a powerful assault on the senses that, of course, runs the risk of becoming propaganda itself. But director Raoul Peck (with previous form in exploring the biography and works of James Baldwin and Karl Marx) and editor Alexandra Strauss wisely glue it together with the ‘voice' of Orwell. Excerpts from his letters, works, and self-analysis allow him to ‘narrate' the documentary, voiced by another Etonian, Damien Lewis. While there is little room for ambiguity in the link drawn between Orwell's work and real events, Orwell's observations often hang, inviting our interpretation.

Peck's approach doesn't skimp on the contrary parts of the writer's life: a man not afraid to evaluate his past or a stranger to changing his mind. At points, it provides a valuable reminder. A section on his work and resignation from the BBC recounts his true feelings about the Corporation, given the controversy surrounding the unveiling of his statue near Broadcasting House.

Considering its fundamental structure, the links drawn by Orwell: 2+5=5 aren't co-dependent. Orwell is ever-present, until he isn't. There's a point about two-thirds of the way through where you may suddenly realise that Orwell's voice or work hasn't been heard for some time. The increasingly contemporary events onscreen have overtaken him, with a particular focus on the blurring lines between media and governments.

As strong in its visuals as in its words, Orwell: 2+2=5 works as a primer on the famed author as much as a searing montage of how little has changed since he penned Nineteen Eighty-Four. Its blunt approach leaves us in no doubt that, if anything, those Orwellian warning signs are getting worse. But like any excellent documentary, its real power is in encouraging us to find out more after the credits roll.

Orwell 2+2=5 was screened as part of the Debate strand of the London Film Festival 2025