Another Film Festival event that wasn't a film was a concert by the SNJO playing Sketches of Spain to tie in with the Spanish strand of the festival's programming.  A fine gig made even finer by Tommy Smith and Laura Jurd's encore of  So What from that other great Miles Davis creation Kind of Blue.

Before getting back to the cinema I took in Women in Parliament, a translation of an Aristophanes comedy in which toilet humour and sexual gags took pride of place.  There were a number of familiar faces in the cast and one that I only later found out I knew such was the depth of her disguise.  The show was variable in quality but it was fun.  Its two star review was fair.

I'd probably give no more than two stars to Emperor of Paris.  Based on the life of François Vidoq before he became a top cop it was a gungho cops and robbers, cowboys and indians sort of movie that would no doubt have appealed to my very much younger self.  But that self is no more.  I realised when the credits came up that I'd picked it because of its Scottish connection.  James Bridie's great grandaughter was in the cast.  I didn't like the other festival film she was in so her presence is clearly not a reliable criterion on which to base my filmgoing.

Sakawa I'm afraid I didn't much like either.  A documentary about West African based internet scams sounded fascinating.  It wasn't.

I finished my festival going with two programmes of Scottish short films, twelve films in all.  Every one was well worth watching and all the filmmakers had something of interest to say in the Q&As after the screenings.  I'll try to give them one sentence each and I've given the directors' names - to be kept an eye on:

Dark Road (Rory Gibson) - grief shared by a boy who lost his brother and the man who accidentally caused his death.

Duck Daze (Alison Piper) - revenge on an abuser when his daughter returns to her childhood home for his funeral.

Belonging (Rory Bentley) - a child and his sister moved to Scotland after their father's death have to adapt.

The Egg and the Thieving Pie (Lola Blanche-Higgins) - surreal and humorous tale of the search for a stolen egg that finds animal traits in human beings.

Educated (Tom Nicholl) - a schoolboy, a schoolgirl, a teacher in unspoken communication

Let's Roll (Chris Thomas) - a teenager defies her mother to train for the town's dangerous tradition.

Never Actually Lost (Rowan Ings) - memories from the director's granny

Stalker (Christopher Andrews) - an old stalker combats a poacher in the Highlands

Jealous Alan (Martin Clark) - two best mates one girl, the old story 

Lucky Star (Russell Davidson) - a young woman fighting to reclaim her home from an alcoholic husband and rebuild life for her eight year old

Farmland (Niamh McKeown) -  black comedy - Sibling rivalry takes a deadly turn after the reading of a father's will.

Boys Night (James Price) - boy trails round city after drunken foul-mouthed father