Filmed over four years in 18 countries and paid for out of the pocket of its co-writer and producer Tarsem Singh, The Fall is a true labour of love – and I guarantee you’ve never seen anything like it.

The film begins like all fantastical adventures do, with a child listening to a story. She is Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), a five year-old Romanian girl with a broken arm. The place is a picturesque Los Angeles hospital, 1915; the narrator is Roy Walker (Lee Pace), an injured silent movie stuntman with a busted leg and a broken heart.

This is the simple framework Tarsem uses to access a world of visual splendour. Swimming elephants, whirling dervishes, intersecting zigzag staircases, and a man emerging from a burning tree are just a few of the phantasmagoria created without any computer generation. Instead, The Fall mined the planet for exquisite locations and employed ancient means to trick the eyes.

While the sheer façade of the film is reason enough to see it, the acting by Untaru is superb. Untaru doesn’t speak English – she learned the lines by heart. This gives her performance a unique childlike realism that should send the Dakota Fannings of this world looking for other work.

At one point in the film Walker stops telling the story because he wants to sleep. Alexandria pleads with him to continue, crying, “You always stop at the same part when it is very beautiful!” When the credits roll, you will echo Alexandria’s plea.

Official website: thefallthemovie.com/