CANNES: Donald Trump is turning the United States into an authoritarian regime, an Oscar-nominated director warned as his documentary about George Orwell was screened at the Cannes film festival on Monday.

Raoul Peck — who also won an Emmy for “I Am Not Your Negro”, his acclaimed portrait of Black American writer James Baldwin — said that “all the signs are there, all the facts are there, where every section of society is attacked. “I hope Americans will realise that they are already in an authoritarian regime,” said the New York-based Haitian filmmaker.

“Journalism is attacked. Justice is attacked. The truth is attacked. All the elements that build a democratic society are under attack,” he added, saying that Orwell had warned us how it would happen in his novels “1984” and “Animal Farm”.

“But we still have people saying, ‘Oh, they just came for the neighbour, but I’m fine. And no, it’s not us, it’s Harvard, it’s Columbia’,” referring to the US universities which have come under attack from the White House. But Orwell and history have taught us that people are always slow to realise that their freedom is being taken away, Peck said.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2025