Further twist in Python’s Quixotic film saga

FOR 17 years, Terry Gilliam has been working on The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, his first attempt so notoriously ill-fated that he dubbed it “the film that didn’t want to be made”.

Now, just as the director and Monty Python star has celebrated finishing the shoot, he faces accusations of damaging a 12th-century Portuguese heritage site during filming.

Gilliam’s team has been accused of causing irreparable damage to the Convent of Christ in Tomar, lighting a 20metre bonfire in a cloister, cutting down trees and breaking centuries-old stones during three weeks of filming. Yesterday Portuguese officials announced an investigation after a TV news broadcast revealed complaints from staff members, alongside images of damaged masonry, dozens of gas cylinders and a burning pyre at the site.

The report by RPT News also showed images of the 16th-century D João II cloister, taken before and after the shoot, and claimed the film crew removed mature trees to make way for the bonfire.

Originally built by the Knights Templar in the 12th century as a Christian fortress against the Moors of Iberia, the Convent of Christ is considered a monument of great historical importance. It has been the location of several film shoots, with Gilliam’s team charged €172,500 (£133,500). Yesterday, the film’s Portuguese producers, Ukbar Filmes, acknowledged some damage, including six broken tiles and “four small stone fragments”. It said that the convent’s evaluation team had accounted for such mishaps, claiming these regularly occurred during shoots and were repaired “year after year”. The team had authorised the tree-cutting as they were not indigenous species, the company added. Gilliam denied that his team had cut down any trees or broken any stones, describing the claims as “ignorant nonsense”.

The first effort at filming, in 2000, faced a series of misfortunes including the set being washed away in a flash flood and one of its leading men suffering a herniated disc.