Toby, a film director, made his artistic breakthrough with a low budget version of Don Quixote, using locals from a village as actors. Ten years on, and his career has been reduced to filming product commercials. Finding himself near the location of his early film, he decides to revisit the village, but finds that the locals have not fared so well in the meantime, either. Sancho Panza has drunk himself into an early grave, the bar owner's daughter has failed to become an actress, and drifted into escort work, later becoming the lover of a Russian businessman, who treats her badly. The cobbler who played Don Quixote now fantasises that he really is the fictional character. By an improbable sequence of events Toby takes on the role of Sancho Panza to this fake Don Quixote, and embarks on a series of adventures. Terry Gilliam's story is at times rambling and self-indulgent, but it does have at its heart a message of 'following your dreams', and of finding a noble quest amidst a cynical, materialistic world. It also has many moments that are visually impressive. Or of comic improvisation.
Review of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
