GWENAËL MORIN

Obsessed by chivalric novels, Alonso Quichano decides to become a knight errant and travel through Spain to fight evil, which he sees everywhere, even in innocuous windmills. The narrative of Miguel de Cervantes’ great, early seventeenth century novel is well known. Armed with his own literary fictions, Gwenaël Morin also attacks this monument, in the company of Jeanne Balibar, Thierry Dupont, and Marie-Noëlle Genod. But unlike the frequently gentle vision of this story, in this director’s interpretation, Don Quixote is the victim of a frenetic succession of brutalities and humiliations that are sometimes inflicted gratuitously by various people who take advantage of his credulity and blindness. And even though the effects of his resistance are laughable and in vain, his madness is necessary, liberating, and healthy. Don Quixote is the second part of the series Démonter les remparts pour finir le pont [“Dismantle the ramparts to finish the bridge”], which began with the Festival d’Avignon and was inaugurated with the unforgettable Le Songe [“The dream”], presented at La Villette in the autumn of 2023. Or, how to tell stories of the untenable that free us.