Virtual love in Gilliam's futuristic "Zero Theorem"

US director Terry Gilliam poses during the photocall of "The Zero Theorem" presented in competition at the 70th Venice Film Festival on September 2nd, 2013 at Venice Lido. (AFP/GABRIEL BOUYS)

VENICE: Monty Python star Terry Gilliam probes the meaning of life in "The Zero Theorem", premiering in Venice on Monday, bringing love and laughs to a tale of solitude in a chaotic, futuristic world.

Actor Christoph Waltz, best known for his roles in Quentin Tarantino films "Inglourious Basterds" and "Django Unchained", plays a tormented computer genius in a society of excess where a master corporation controls all.

Matt Damon plays Leth Qohen, who is forced to venture from his safe haven in an abandoned church into a nightmarish world of streets bombarded with advertising to go to work in a cubicle, where he crunches numbers for the "master".

When he is put on a special project to crack the Zero Theorem which will reveal how and when all existence will end, Qohen totters on the brink of insanity until playful blonde Bainsley turns up out of nowhere to distract him.

Plugging themselves into computer mainframes to escape into fantasy worlds, Qohen and Bainsley -- played by French actress Melanie Thierry -- seem to have broken free before the film descends into a battle for control and self-will.

"The question I asked myself was, do we have real relationships any more, or only virtual relationships?" Gilliam told journalists in Venice.

"I find it interesting that people hide behind false names online. Adverts tell people they have to be gods and goddesses, and because they cannot live up to the ideal, they are forced to communicate secretly. It worries me," he said.

"We have access to all of this, the Internet seems to offer everything. And yet we are separated, communities seem to be increasingly divided," he added.

Gilliam said the events of the Arab Spring had also inspired him to examine the complexities of the influence and power of modern technology.

"It seemed to have been sparked by access to social networks and this sort of communication, but I wonder where the users are now, what happened to them, as the people who were kicked out of power in Egypt are back in control."

Maths equations are worked out in the film on video game-style consoles, the results stored in liquid memory vials and in a bank of stars deep in the heart of the corporation, but the future in "The Zero Theorem" does not feel far off.

"The film has grown from what we originally set out to do. It now seems very much about the time we are living in now. The future came and caught us before we could catch it. The future's apparently going backwards," Gilliam quipped.

Companionship, virtual or otherwise, is the key to the protagonist's redemption, though personally the director said he warned against it, retorting "the role of love is a dangerous thing... I don't recommend it at all!"

Above all, the film is about personal freedom -- a theme captured in a park scene when Qohen sits on a bench in front of a vast cross-shaped sign showing all the things passersby are forbidden to do, from holding balloons to kissing.

Somewhat ironically, Gilliam said the cast and crew found just the sort of liberty longed for in the film in Bucharest, where the shooting took place.

"We filmed there because it was cheaper than London. There's no health and safety in Bucharest -- there's freedom. There you had to take responsibility once more for your own actions. It was brilliant!" he said.