04/09/2002 - Manuel Gutierréz Aragón brings us a new adventure for Cervantes’ most celebrated creation with Don Quixote, Knight Errant

Dreams are reality and reality dreams. That, in essence, is the life of one of Spanish literature’s most celebrated wandering cavaliers, a hero whose will live forever and a man who knocked down the barriers separating nation from nation and went on to win international recognition. The secret of the universal appeal of Miguel de Cervantes’ most celebrated character, Don Quixote, lies perhaps in the way cinema has told and retold the remarkable story of this eternal optimist who never ever loses hope. The latest version is a Spanish production entitled Don Quixote, Knight Errant [+see also:
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Directed by Iberian filmmaker, Manuel Gutierréz Aragòn, it is the story of the later years of Don Quixote and his inseparable companion of adventure, Sancho Pancha, as they single-handedly (or rather “double-handedly”) take on the mighty Turkish Invader. “Don Quixote is completely over the top, but the excessive aspects of his character are tempered by his romantic nature, and that is what makes him unique,” explained Gutierrèz. “I decided to make this film about the adventures he had in later life because that is the more melancholy part of the book. Don Quixote is old and tired, and age has taken a heavy toll on him both physically and mentally. But his spirit is indomitable and prevails to allow him to overcome these obstacles, and his soul to soar. He enters a fantastic realm, a component of the reality of this adventure.” Ambiguity and reality are a constant of every page of this book, starting with Dulcinea, Don Quixote’s beloved, who is really a man in women’s clothes: a cruel joke Sancho plays at his master’s expense.

The film was made entirely on location in Spain and gave the actors a most welcome opportunity for an intimate and inward-looking journey, as the protagonist, Juan Luis Galiardo explained. “When Gutierrèz called to offer me the part, he said this film would become a profoundly intimate exploration of Don Quixote. That was a pretext for me to look deep inside my own soul and it was a rare and beautiful experience.”

(Translated from Italian)