Terry Gilliam’s magnificent nightmare is more than 20 years old, yet seems even more potent today with its wicked blend of terrorism,authoritarian leadership, cosmetic surgery gone crazy and bureaucratic madness.
Sam Lowry, a lowly worker for a dystopian government, becomes a fly in his regime’s ointment when he tries to help a young woman who also happens to appear as an angel in his dreams.
Brutal and hysterical, characters vanish in whirlwinds of litter, and amid the oppression and endless ducts the great hero turns out to be an air-conditioning mechanic.
Even the near-mythical countryside, symbolic of the last refuge for freedom, peace and contentment, is polluted in a brilliantly casual and cruel denouement.