This is a short film that packs a big punch. Somehow, film-maker Tom Austin turns ten minutes in a boxing gym with the legendary artist (played by Jez Jameson) into a surreal docu-drama about his life. And much like the great painter’s work, this film at once confounds yet makes sense of the insensible.

The film tells the story of how his odd family (including his dead brother) helped shape the young man into becoming arguably the twentieth century’s greatest painter. And there’s plenty here for the film buffs –  with reverential references to his and Bunuel’s groundbreaking film ‘Un Chien Andalou’, and his collaboration with Hitchcock on ‘Spellbound’, its aim is to remind us how much Dali has influenced the way we look at this wierd world we live in. Won Best Film (Audience Award) & Best Bursary Film at the Two Short Nights Film Festival, Exeter, Nov. 2009. You can catch a clip of the film on Youtube here, although this really is a film that deserves to be watched from beginning to end – keep an eye out to see when we might screen it next!

Screened at Compton Verney Art Gallery, November 2010