The co-director of the acclaimed "Lost in La Mancha" discusses its surprise success, "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote", and being told to "Shut that bloody camera off."

Were you surprised by the success of the film?

Totally surprised. We never expected it would have this kind of exposure. Especially in this country, the reception was amazing.

Did you feel conflicted when you were filming, because the disasters that befell "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" made for great footage?

Oh yeah. We were hugely conflicted. If it weren't for the fact that Terry [Gilliam] was very encouraging I don't know that we would've gotten through it. It felt exploitative to us. We actually went to Terry, when it was clear that things were going very badly for his film, and said, "We’re not comfortable with what we're doing anymore." He basically said, "You may be the only ones to get a film out of this, so please feel free to keep shooting." That helped tremendously and his support of the film has helped tremendously, because otherwise we'd be going around publicising this thing, thinking, "Well, we're benefiting from someone else's failure."

Did he enjoy - well, enjoy's the wrong word - but did he appreciate the film?

He does not enjoy the film. Ha, ha! That is definitely the wrong word. He appreciates it, though.

Is there a figure that can be blamed for "Don Quixote" falling apart?

I don't think there's really anyone you can blame, if you look at the evidence in "Lost In La Mancha". What really brought the film down ultimately was the illness of an actor, which was certainly nobody's fault. It could have had stronger producers, that might have helped to some extent. They could have had more money. If Jean Rochefort hadn't fallen ill, I think the film could still very well have gone down the tubes, because they didn't have enough money.

Did anyone ever tell you to switch off the camera and get out?

A few times, I mean there were some meetings we weren't able to cover. Phil Patterson, as the first AD, it's his job to keep you at bay, so there were times when he would say, "Shut the bloody camera off". But not a lot.

As Terry Gilliam is your friend, how difficult is it to be unflinching on him in your gaze as a filmmaker?

As I indicated already, it's only easy with Terry because Terry makes it easy. I think if it were anyone else, it'd be very difficult to observe them that closely, because you feel like you're exploiting them. It [the change in Terry] was pretty startling. When we went back to Los Angeles and we looked at our footage, we noticed that towards the end of our coverage, there was a very different Terry Gilliam. There was no kind of light in his eyes, there was no smile. It was actually then that we felt like, we really have a film here, because you have this incredible dramatic progression where a guy who's always laughing suddenly doesn't laugh any more.

Did you always intend to make documentaries, instead of fiction films?

I went to film school intending to make documentary films, because it was always an interest of mine. I think what people don't realise about documentary filmmaking is that it's not so different from fiction filmmaking. It's still about telling a good story. Shaping a good story is the whole craft of making a documentary. It bothers me that people make such a division between them. It's obviously different from directing actors, but I think the two forms of filmmaking inform each other very well.

"Lost in La Mancha" is now out to buy on DVD.