Amnesty International is launching a new ad featuring a hard-hitting torture scene showing simulated "waterboarding" in a campaign to outlaw the controversial interrogation practice.

The ad, created by advertising agency Drugstore, is set to run in cinemas nationwide from May 9 and is being released online this week.

Amnesty's 90-second film, called Stuff of Life, opens in slow motion with stylish shots of crystal-clear water and an upbeat soundtrack in the style of a typical mineral-water TV ad.

However, after lulling viewers the ad transforms into an interrogation room where a man is strapped to a table being subjected to waterboarding. Waterboarding involves first tying detainees to a board face-up and tilted backwards, then pouring water over the face and into breathing passages to simulate drowning.

"For a few seconds our film-makers did this for real, they poured water up the nose and into the mouth of someone who was pinned down with his head tilted back," said Sara McNeice, campaign manager at Amnesty International UK.

"Even for those few seconds it is horrifying to watch. The reality, in a secret prison with no one to stop it, is much, much worse."

The launch of the ad, which Amnesty International has dubbed "the film the CIA doesn't want you to see", follows the publishing of a book called Torture Team, which claims to shed light on interrogation techniques used in places such as Guantanamo Bay.

Author Philippe Sands, a professor of law at University College London, alleges that interrogation techniques developed at Guantánamo were inspired by the extreme exploits of Jack Bauer, played by actor Kiefer Sutherland, in the American TV series 24.

The campaign is part of Amnesty International UK's "unsubscribe" initiative launched in October last year that aims to gather support for human rights in the era of the "war on terror".

Amnesty's ad has been created in conjunction with post-production company DarkFibre Films and visual effects company Prime Focus London.

The cinema campaign will break in 50 Picturehouse cinema screens nationwide from May 9.

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