An anonymous pair of rubber gloved hands removes the tube from the instrument table and approaches the terrified, shackled man on the gurney. They hold the man’s face still and force the tube into one of his nostrils. Another man is strapped into a chair, his head clamped between two large blocks, and suffers the same fate.

Images like this do not, of course, exist as cameras and recording equipment are not allowed into Guantanamo Bay, the infamous US detention centre in Cuba. The images I am watching are in a short animated film about the plight of detainees on hunger strike at the camp that has been made by The Guardian with the help of a team of animators from Middlesex University in Hendon.

The film is based on testimonies collated by human rights law firm Reprieve, whose staff visited detainees held without charge or trial at Guantanamo, many of whom have been cleared of any wrongdoing for more than five years but are still being held, and created by animation company Sherbet.

One of the team from Middlesex University was animation student Harriet Titlow, who lives in Finchley Central.

“We had to put ourselves in the detainees’ shoes,“ says Harriet, 21, who is now in the third year of her degree in animation.

“At first I felt a little bit detached from it because we were just working towards finishing something, getting a job done.

“But then with things like the forcing of food into their noses, that was heart-wrenching. It was really shocking and it really opened my eyes as to what we were doing with this film.“

Guantanamo Bay: The Hunger Strikes aims to raise awareness of what is happening in the camp.

“People are aware but the true extent of what’s going on hasn’t really been released until now,“ says Harriet, who moved down from Norwich to study at the university.

“I didn’t know about the force feeding or how the prisoners should have been released a long time ago, it’s absolutely unbelievable.

“I hope it has an effect on people watching it.“