The revived production wasn’t completely trouble-free. The Portuguese government investigated accusations that a Unesco World Heritage site, the 12th-century Convent of Christ in Tomar, was damaged during filming, something Mr. Gilliam vigorously denied. A former producer of the film who had fallen out with Gilliam, Paulo Branco, filed suit over rights ownership and tried to block its debut at Cannes. A Paris court ruled that the movie could debut as planned.

And with that, an endeavor that has taken up almost half of Gilliam’s life has been completed. Now, he has a new windmill to tilt at: how the film’s rollout is being handled.

“I’m not convinced with the way it is being released in many countries, particularly in America,” Gilliam said. “I’m told by other people that if you have a studio picture with millions to spend, this idea of one screening across the country works. I don’t know. We’ll find out. I’m in the middle of trying to get these guys to promote it properly.”

Still, Gilliam described himself as exhausted and for the first time in 30 years, finds himself with nothing on his plate.

Whenever he finished a film, he would “go into a postnatal depression and there was always something waiting. There was a little Quixote standing back there waving to me. ‘Hey, let’s do me again!’ It was always something to keep me moving forward. And right now, I never felt quite like I do at the moment: It’s just I have no idea what to do.”