Showing @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 9 Feb only @ 21:15

As the seventh Manipulate draws to a close, festival goers are offered A Murder of Shorts as a last hurrah to the imagination. And what a hurrah it is, as Death takes centre stage in pen, ink and pencil.

Some episodes are explicit – the closing film, The Maggot Feeder, features a grim Chukchi folk tale in which a man plans to throw his wife into a stone chimney to be slowly and horrifically devoured. Black, white and grey dominate the screen, with the occasional splash of red.

Others are abstract. Gloria Victoria adopts every style from medieval woodcuts to Cubism, with half-hidden 2oth Century tragedies flickering across the screen, like a blood splattered kaleidoscope. The lighter side of mortality is showcased with Una Furtiva Lagrima, a charming episode depicting a freshly-caught fish, who sings his own languorous lament from market to buttered frying pan. This last example sets the tone of the whole show, as a grim subject matter proves not only thought-provoking but curiously uplifting. Lonely Bones hits a rare sour note, with a pretentious set-up and the look of a cheap Sin City knock-off. The rest bring a triumphant and imaginative week to a fitting close.

Click here for more details about all the films featured