Lost in La Mancha

Lost in La Mancha is probably the first film on the “non-making” of a film: the story of a film that does not exist. Madrid, summer 2000: Terry Gilliam is preparing the shoot of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, a personal and ambitious version of Miguel de Cervantes’ masterpiece, starring Jean Rochefort, Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis. Despite difficult production conditions, Gilliam remains enthusiastic. After a tough ten-year struggle, his dream is finally about to come true. He asks Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, who are specialised in documentaries about the making of films, to make one on his own film. The adventure begins but calamities soon befall the production – from minor setbacks to health problems, from personal conflicts to memorable flash storms – the documentarists witnesses first-hand the collapse of the film.