Dans Blue Orchids, Johan Grimonprez met en parallèle les portraits de deux experts situés aux extrémités du commerce mondial des armes. Les parcours de Chris Hedges, reporter de guerre au New York Times, et de Riccardo Privitera, marchand d’arme pour Talisman Ltd, fournissent un contexte dérangeant pour des révélations choquantes sur l’industrie de la guerre. Au fil du récit, il devient clair que les deux hommes décrivent la même angoisse, le même traumatisme, mais selon deux perspective opposées : l'un a consacré sa vie à démasquer les mensonges, tandis que l'autre a construit sa vie dessus.

In Blue Orchids, Johan Grimonprez creates a double portrait of two experts situated on opposite ends of the same issue—the global arms trade. The stories of Chris Hedges, a former New York Times war correspondent, and Riccardo Privitera, arms and equipment dealer for the now-defunct Talisman Europe Ltd, provide an unusual and disturbing context for shocking revelations about the industry of war. While interviewing Privitera and Hedges for Grimonprez’s recently released feature Shadow World (2016), it became clear that the two men were describing the same anguish and trauma, but from paradoxical perspectives. One has dedicated his life to unmasking lies, while the other has built his life on them. Both their personal and political histories gradually reveal the depths of suffering and duplicity, showing that the arms trade is a symptom of a profound illness: greed.