The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus tells the story of Dr. Parnassus and his extraordinary 'Imaginarium', a travelling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. 

Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Doctor Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. An inveterate gambler, thousands of years ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr. Nick, in which he won immortality. Centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr. Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his daughter reached her 16th birthday, she would become the property of Mr Nick.

Valentina is now rapidly approaching this 'coming of age' milestone and Dr. Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr. Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr. Parnassus promises his daughter's hand in marriage to the man that helps him win. In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr. Parnassus must fight to save his daughter in a never-ending landscape of surreal obstacles – and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all!

The announcement of a new Terry Gilliam film tends to evoke a lively mixture of excitement, curiosity and not a little apprehension.  This spectacular modern-day fantasy adventure, which was recently selected for a special out-of-competition screening at the Cannes Film Festival, is a fantastical morality tale. The visionary director has the reputation of a singularly creative maverick, but his creations' passage to the screen has not always been easy. 

The tragic loss of Heath Ledger, on 22nd January 2008, during the production of the film threatened closedown, but Gilliam fought to re-configure the story without losing the fine performance which his star had already committed to film.  A devastated Terry Gilliam's immediate decision was to close down. "I just said I don't know how I'm going to make this thing work". But losing Heath created a situation that demanded clever solutions which pushed Gilliam into doing things that were not his original intention. "Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law came to Vancouver to play these various aspects of Tony, the character which Heath Ledger began. Their willingness to help rescue the film and Heath's last performance was an incredible act of generosity and love.  A beautiful and rare moment in our industry and, as a result of their involvement, the film is even more special: it's more surprising; it's become funnier."