OUT at selected UK cinemas from 2 December

The striking visuals in Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer’s latest flick combine real actors with hacked-up, animated photographs, set against a grimy black-and-white backdrop of urban decay. According to the director, his minuscule budget made it impossible to use many real actors, but whatever the reason for his unique approach, Surviving Life looks amazing and it’s a film surrealist legends Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí might’ve been proud to put their names to.

Weaving the twisted tale of an aging man who leads a double life split between humdrum reality and the vivacious world of dreams, Surviving Life features a heady blend of love, sex, childhood trauma and tragedy, but with enough sick jokes, vomiting and boner-sporting teddy bears to stop Svankmajer’s “psychoanalytical comedy” from disappearing up its own arsehole.