The Man Who Killed Don Quixote 2018 is a movie about Julian Thorne, a disillusioned documentary filmmaker who, in 2018, journeys to a remote, sun-baked region of La Mancha, Spain. He's working on a retrospective piece about a forgotten, experimental film from the 1970s that was a modern take on Don Quixote, starring a local, eccentric shepherd. Julian discovers that the shepherd, now an elderly man, never truly left the role; he genuinely believes he is Don Quixote and Julian is his loyal squire, Sancho Panza. As Julian tries to film the shepherd, he is increasingly drawn into the old man's elaborate delusions, finding himself participating in bizarre, chivalrous quests against windmills that turn into industrial wind turbines and giants who are actually ruthless land developers. The line between Julian's cynical reality and the shepherd's fervent fantasy blurs, forcing Julian to confront his own lack of idealism and the impact of the original film on the old man's life. He realizes he has become "the man who killed Don Quixote," not by ending his life, but by forcing him into a fabricated reality that never truly let him go, and must now decide whether to save the old man, or embrace the madness himself.
