Almost every film I've ever watched has changed my life, but this is the one that provoked a definite shift in me.

It's a film about a first world war battle but it's absolutely ridiculous because everyone's going to die yet the general claims they are making progress and so over the top they go, and it's a disaster. But rather than accepting the blame the generals accuse the troops of being cowardly and three are chosen by lots, tried and executed. It just made me so angry that that kind of injustice could exist, that people were dying for other people's mistakes. That was a growing-up moment for me.

I must have been about 13 or 14 when I first saw this, which is a very vulnerable and dangerous age because something as simple as watching a film can change your perception of the world. Before this, I'd just seen films as a form of entertainment, but suddenly here was something that was dealing with serious issues, and I realised that you could use films to say something important.

This was the first film where I became aware of the camera. There are these incredible tracking shots through the trenches: I'd never seen anything like that and suddenly the mechanics of film and how they're made became interesting to me. This was probably the film that led me to want to be a director.

You can see at the beginning of my film Brazil that the huge tracking shots are basically inspired and stolen from Paths of Glory. That's what happens when you make films: you try to emulate images that had an impact on you. For me, this is one of Kubrick's best films. He did things in a way that was really new and exciting. And I learnt that the camera can do things rather than just record: it can effectively become a character in the piece.

This year's Bradford international film festival (16–27 March) will host a retrospective tribute to Terry Gilliam's work; nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/biff