George Orwell was born on 25 June 1903 in Bengal, India. This year, celebrate Orwell's birthday with a screening of 1984, a film and music adaptation of his iconic novel, Nineteen Eight-Four.

This original 65-minute film reimagines the novel against a new musical tapestry, created by Estonian composer Mihkel Kerem.

The broadcast will begin on 25th Jun 2021 7:00pm (BST) with on-demand video available for 30 days after the show.

Musical America said about 1984: "A gripping drama, imaginatively filmed [with] a first-class score. Mihkel Kerem rises to the challenge magnificently. The playing is superb... music-making of complete commitment that perfect captures the spirit of a chilling score, conducted by the composer. This is a superb telling of Orwell's story... a modern equivalent of the novelist's claustrophobic vision."

"A powerful new film which uses Mihkel Kerem's dramatic orchestral score to explore themes from Orwell's novel" - 4 stars, Planet Hugill.

Created by New European Ensemble and Greengage Ventures, featuring American National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden, British actor Joseph Thompson and the composer Mihkel Kerem.

Watch the trailer below.

Credits

Text: George Orwell

Music and conductor: Mihkel Kerem

Directed by: Gijs Besseling, Emlyn Stam and Sophie Hunter

Executive Producer: Emily Ingram

Producer: Clementine Seely

Actor: Joseph Thompson

Presentation: Edward Snowden

Director of Photography: Paul Evans

1st Camera / Lighting: Jack Finn Taylor

Art Department / Costume: Samuel Wyer

Sound Engineer: Donal Sweeney

Make-up Artist: Chang Kim

Scenic and Lighting Assistant: George Thompson

Cello solo: Willem Stam

Ensemble: New European Ensemble

Length: 65 minutes

New European Ensemble

New European Ensemble (NEuE) is made up of devoted musicians from across Europe and focuses on reaching a broad array of audiences with performances of high quality new music. NEuE was founded in 2009 and is based in The Hague.

The ensemble’s mission is to present contemporary and 20th century music in an accessible and appealing fashion by combining music with film, literature, dance, theatre and visual art. The New European Ensemble aims to use this project to illustrate new music’s relevance to society.

Mihkel Kerem

Of Estonian descent, the music of Estonia and the Baltic’s is especially important to Kerem and he often performs works of Estonian composers. Kerem is currently the Assistant Concertmaster with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, UK and Brandenburg Sinfonia, UK. He lives in Liverpool.

Greengage

Greengage is a production company created by Emily Ingram in 2020. It is now part of OnJam. Greengage strives to push the creative boundaries of digital music and theatre performances. It has so far produced 13 original shows made for digital and found paying audiences in 49 countries. Its filmed performances have been accepted to film festivals and won awards including Winner in the Palm Beach International Music Awards (Classical Music category), Finalist in the International Music Video Awards and Semi-Finalist in the Munich Music Video Awards (both for multiple categories). All the shows have received enthusiastic comments from audiences and critics.

Special thanks to the Netherlands Performing Art Fund, The City of The Hague and the Kersjesfonds.