Bill Douglas Trilogy in order

The Bill Douglas Trilogy recounts the harrowing experiences of a young boy, Jamie, growing up in crippling poverty: material and emotional impoverishment; harrowing privations at the hands of his paternal grandmother; incarceration in a children’s home; living in a hostel for down-and-outs. 3 films, 2h 54m in all, in release order.

1. 1
   

   My Childhood

   1972 · 47 min

   The first part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars - and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.

   Worth the Hype
2. 2
   

   My Ain Folk

   1973 · 55 min

   When Jamie's maternal grandmother dies, he and his brother Tommy are separated - Tommy is taken off to a welfare home and Jamie goes to live with his other grandmother and uncle. His life is far from happy, filled with silence, rejection and bouts of violence.

   New
3. 3
   

   My Way Home

   1978 · 72 min

   Jamie leaves the children's home to live with his paternal grandmother. After working in a mine and in a tailor's shop, he is conscripted into the RAF, and goes to Egypt, where he is befriended by Robert, whose undemanding companionship releases Jamie from self-pity.

   New