From the opening scene, Terry Gilliam's Brazil puzzles and captivates viewers with its account of a totalitarian system fueled by incompetence, apathy, and terror. The unnecessary precision of the time—8:49 pm—and the deliberate vagueness of the place—somewhere in the 20th century—set the tone for this witty piece about a society where the big picture is lost in the mundane details. In Gilliam’s creation, a wife must sign a receipt for her husband when he is taken away for interrogation, billboards advertising happiness and prosperity block a view of wastelands and tumbledown apartments, and the only person with the capacity to save humanity from oppression has chosen instead to repair heating ducts. Brazil is about searching for love in a time of fear and uncertainty, actually finding love, and then being squashed flat in that moment of vulnerability by “the system.” Gilliam’s expert blending of humor, sarcasm, romance, political jibes, art, and reality (to an extent) makes Brazil a noteworthy addition to the science fiction genre.