USA/France/2025 — directed by Raoul Peck | 119 min.

This daring and powerfully engaging portrait of the life and career of George Orwell propels us through the stages of the great author’s journey with urgency and passion.

Selections from Orwell’s essays and letters, narrated with rich humanity by actor Damian Lewis, provide the film’s biographical foundation. Yet the narrative never strays far from the shocking contemporary relevance of Orwell’s prescient masterwork, 1984.

Oscar®-nominated director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) weaves together pivotal moments from screen and television adaptations of 1984, alongside contemporary documentary footage that sharpens Orwell’s blistering cautionary tale of authoritarianism into an all-too-vivid reality. Official Selection, 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

“Brilliant. The boldest documentary anyone could make right now.” – Stephanie Zacharek, Time