Do Not Erase. Won BAFTA Best Short. Self-funded by director Asitha Ameresekere. Northern Mother records video diary to soldier son in Iraq. Background rows sketch in hollowness of life. London stands in for Bradford. Very professionally acted and put together, although clearly motivated by a "clever idea" rather than concern for troops or their families. 29 minutes. Long for a short. Look forward to the next one.

Meanwhile, much hilarity in the office as I disappeared to see French film Sheitan, which did, indeed, turn out to be a sh*te 'un. A bunch of yobby clubbers, the boys bent on getting their legs over the girls, fetch up at a down-at-heel chateau full of dismembered dolls and a brood of malevolent inbreds led by Vincent Cassell's manically-grinning shepherd. Do they run? Do they hide? Do they hell. Idiots. The events that unfold are utterly, nastily predictable and the film itself a throwback to the days when the physically and mentally challenged were seen as legitimate background 'colour' for any horror flick. There are only two more things to note about it. First, look at this link and then tell me that Roxane Mesquida wasn't cloned from Rachel Weisz by some pervy scientist in a cellar somewhere. And second, I have a theory that Sheitan's witless pastiche of 70s slash 'n' satanism films is actually a complicated act of revenge by the French on Hollywood for remakes such as The Assassin and My Father the Hero.