Screens on March 18 at 6.30 p.m at the Liberty Theatre and on March 20 at 4 p.m. at the Little Theatre.A comic film set in the world of stand-up comedy could easily fall back on stage footage as a prop.However Festival is so rich in characters and comic inventions that there is precious little use of stand-up material — indeed the few times it does show the comics in action they are laughably bad.

The film covers a comedy competition in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival — that late summer cultural event when the entire Scottish city is seemingly powered for a frantic few days entirely by the collective neurosis of the thousands of performers all vying to make their mark.

The film is as fast paced as the festival where serious culture vultures guzzle down Shakespeare for breakfast and plays dealing with peadophilia at lunchtime.

But Festival’s main theme is the large egos of the performers and critics. There’s Sean Sullivan, an egotistical comedian and award judge who sleeps with one of the contenders.

He clashes with fellow judge Joan Gerard, a jaded BBC Scotland journalist who sleeps with Tommy O’Dwyer, a washed up boozy Irish comic who needs all the help he can get.

The interplay between the two provides some of the best moments, particularly as the pushy Joan tries to coax the lugubrious Tommy from the pub into bed. “I have ordered some natchos,” protests Tommy who is not one to leave a pub while they are still serving. He is consoled by the fact the hotel bedroom has a minibar.

Indeed most of the action in Festival occurs in the bar or between the sheets. There are some incredibly graphic scenes including one not fit to mention in a family newspaper, save to say we see a comic puppeteer finally find out what it is like to be a glove puppet.

I wonder too what Bermudian audiences will make of some of the thick accents which could really do with subtitles on occasion.

But while it is not a film you would want to watch with your mother it is definitely something you should make every effort to see. I really can’t recall the last time I laughed so much and was so impressed. Every scene is beautifully crafted, the lines so rich and true. I still find myself laughing out loud when I remember some of the lines.

So all in all a pretty gushing review? Well deserved I’d say. Mind, Festival shows how these things work — I could be sleeping with one of the cast.