John: George Orwell's writings warning of the dangers of totalitarian and authoritarian states gave the English language the term "Orwellian."

A new documentary argues that orwell's greatest fears are coming true.

William brangham talked with the director about his new film, which is in theaters nationwide.

>> The very concept of objective truth is fading out of this world.

>> I'm going to set down what I cannot say aloud, to anyone.

>> This prospect frightens me much more than bombs.

William: In his new film "Orwell: 2+2=5," director raoul peck offers what is in part a biography of the visionary novelist, essayist and social critic George orwell, best known for 1984 and animal farm.

But peck's film also serves as a jarring reminder of orwell's clearest warnings: About inequality, the pernicious nature of the surveillance state, and the lengths to which leaders will distort the truth to retain power.

Raoul peck joins us now.

Welcome back to the program.

One of your last films was incredibly timely in its moment.

This film even more so, as I think audiences are seeing.

When did you realize that this was the moment for now?

Raoul: As a filmmaker, it takes us three or four or five years to make a film so you never know when it will air but we do make sure that our film will survive and that the coincidence of it coming out right now shows us not about predicting the future but how clear he was in his own experience in arbitrary moments of authoritarian regimes.

E saw the whole toolbox of those appearances and it rang so truthful today.

John: The words in this film, one might call them narration.

>> Freedom is slavery.

John: As you are listening to him speak, overlaid with images of modern day, several times watching the film I had to remind myself these were words written almost half a century ago.

Raoul: Absolutely.

Let is the scarier thought.

Ven dealing with the text, I started with the text and going through all of the extraordinary occasions, everything he had written, and going through, you can see, they are describing something I saw yesterday.

That is an out of body experience, but that shows how deep he was, how he was able to construct the whole pattern of events in authoritarian behavior and he said doesn't have to be an authoritarian country for this to happen.

It can happen within democracies as well.

It is a slow burn where you don't even realize what is happening.

William: There is not an announcement where trump is saying here comes totalitarianism.

Raoul: It is step-by-step, and each time the society accepts that facts are not truthful anymore, that there are alternative realities, that words don't mean the same thing anymore or that words are forbidden, those are part of the toolbox of every authoritarian regime.

When there is a dictatorship, the first thing they do is burn books and attack the media, capture the TV stations.

It is weird to be living this in the United States.

Orwell said something very truthful when he said the degradation of language is the condition for the degradation of democracy.

And now we are in a world where even words are being put aside, words we are not allowed to use against this administration anymore.

The function of that word will disappear.

It is like closing your eyes.

It is a very weird place for democracy right now.

William: You are clearly arguing in this film that we are in this moment orwell warned us about where governments will insist that two plus two equals five.

Do you believe that?

Do you agree that we are in one of those moments?

Raoul: Watch the news every day.

Here are elected officials trying to convince you that what you are seeing is not what it is , or that you should use that word to describe something that is functionally an abuse of rights.

When you attacked the justice system, when you attack the journalists or the networks, those are known tools to degrade democracy.

At one point you have to accept that this is what is going on.

You cannot continue to tell yourself well he is saying two plus two equals five, maybe they might be right.

No, you have to keep your common sense.

Two plus two is always four.

It is not a matter of opinion, it is a fact.

William: Given that in your belief that we are in this moment, how do you explain the relative lack of outrage?

Raoul: First of all, contrary to what is declared every day, it is not a landslide victory.

It was a 1% difference of electoral votes.

Second, people are stunned.

A lot of people are stunned.

When suddenly all the limits that you knew, all the rules that you knew, the language that you knew doesn't mean the same thing.

It is hard to react.

When you have lived for so long in a republic that was more or less peaceful, where there was a balance of power.

Congress had its job, the executive branch had its job.

You start to see a dysfunction.

Eople whose presence is to make sure that everything is running correctly are not doing their job.

They are afraid to say what they actually believe and take the floor when they know they are not going for reelection.

All of those signs.

When you have to -- I come from Haiti, I grew up in a dictatorship and I remember my parents whispering in the living room and now I am seeing friends and they don't have certain discussions openly anymore because they don't want to lose their jobs or they don't want to be catalogued in one camp or another.

Those are very scary signs and when you come from the third world, you have some instinct to decipher those signs very early on.

William: The film is Orwell: 2+2=5.

Thank you.

Raoul: Thank you for having me.