Artist Paul Heintz publishes a classified advert in the English newspaper The Sun searching for namesakes of the hero of George Orwell’s novel 1984. Part of the film narrates the daily life of those who answered to the advert, whilst the other shows the meeting of the Winton Smiths. Here, the viewer can’t tell whether it’s a theatrical act with a predetermined text or the result of spontaneous gestures and words. The film is built on a subtle movement between the individual and the collective, the private and the political in which excerpts from Orwell’s novel blend in with the lives of the Winston Smiths.
Paul Heintz (Saint-Avold, France, 1989) lives and works between Paris and the Lorraine region. His work has been presented at contemporary art events and film festival such as FID Marseille, IFFR Rotterdam, Visions du ReĂŚÂel, Paris Nuit Blanche. In 2019, he won the contemporary art price ReĂŚÂveĂŚÂlation Emerige and Artist book of the year Adagp 2021.