EXCLUSIVE: Goodfellas has unveiled a first round of deals for Raoul Peck’s documentary Orwell: 2+2=5, exploring the contemporary resonance of George Orwell’s work, following its well-received world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
In Europe, the work has been acquired for France (Le Pacte), Benelux (18K Film), Spain (Caramel Films), Italy (I Wonder), Portugal (Midas Filmes), Scandinavia (Nonstop Entertainment), Bulgaria (Beta Film), Czech Republic (Film Europe), Romania (Independenta), Baltic States (A One) and Poland (Against Gravity).
In the rest of the world, the documentary has sold to Israel (Lev Cinemas) and Turkey (Yeni Bir Film), Australia (Madman Entertainment) and Japan (Comstock).
Neon pre-acquired the film for North America in a previously announced deal.
The documentary is co-produced by Peck’s Velvet Films and Oscar-winner Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions.
BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Peck explores how Orwell’s work – and his dystopian masterpiece 1984 in particular, with its ideas around Doublethink, Thoughtcrime, Newspeak and Big Brother – resonates ever more powerfully today.
Interweaving archive footage from adaptations of 1984 with a tapestry of 21st century images, Peck dissects Orwell’s prescient genius and his vital lessons for our times and future.
The documentary debuted in the Cannes Premiere section of the festival to a long ovation and strong reviews, praising the timeliness of the film in an era in which freedom of speech and civil liberties are under assault and autocrats are on the rise worldwide.
The narration by Homeland star Damian Lewis, who attended the world premiere, has also won praise.
Deadline’s Documentary Editor Matt Carey described the work as ‘an urgent, indispensable film for our times’. Read his review here.
Oscar-winning producer and director Gibney welcomed the positive response.
“I was thrilled by the response in Cannes to Raoul’s extraordinary film,” he said. “From the engagement of the audiences, and an extraordinary 8-minute standing ovation on opening night, to the enthusiasm of critics and buyers, there is an inexorable response to the searing artistry of the film and the timely power of its message. As Orwell wrote in 1984, ‘Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four’.”
Haitian director Peck, who divides his time between New York, Paris and Port-au-Prince, was previously in Cannes with Earnest Cole, Lost And Found which played in a Special Screening last year.
His body of work also includes the Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro as well as narrative features The Young Karl Marx, Lumumba and Man On The Shore, which was a Palme d’Or contender in 1991.
