From ashen-faced ghoul Bengt Ekerot in The Seventh Seal to blonde bombshell Brad Pitt in Meet Joe Black, Death has taken a variety of cinematic forms. In this ambitious and eccentric indie, the Grim Reaper is a creepy, size-shifting macaw with a raspy and sinister speaking voice. A UK and US co-production, Tuesday acts as an intriguing and admirable introduction to Croatia-born, London-based filmmaker Daina O Pusić, making her feature debut.

This magical realist, black comedy-infused drama takes us from intimate domestic environs out into a wonderfully weird version of our world. Set in London, it follows a mother and daughter going through the most trying of times. Lola Petticrew (Bloodlands) plays terminally ill teen Tuesday, who manages to befriend Death (voiced by Arinzé Kene), helping him clean his dirty feathers and joining him in a rendition of Ice Cube’s ‘It Was A Good Day’. Veep’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus is Tuesday’s spiralling and petrified mum Zora, in denial about what’s coming and keeping this small family afloat by surreptitiously flogging their possessions.

Tuesday often wears its heavy subject matter lightly, with its irreverent humour epitomised by Petticrew’s delicate and defiantly pleasant performance. At the same time, Louis-Dreyfus’ haunted and furious turn captures the gut-wrenching sadness of the situation, whilst finding room for some of her famed comic timing.

The effects are impressive for such a modestly budget effort, with Death itself a tangible and fascinating creation, while the whole thing is sprinkled with an appealingly fairytale-esque sense of the macabre. Tuesday takes a while to bed in tonally and doesn’t feel fully realised in its final, more expansive throes, but it’s quirky and loveable, and offers a distinctive and intelligent perspective on loss.

Tuesday is in cinemas from Friday 9 August.