Bill Douglas's award-winning trilogy – My Childhood, My Ain Folk and My Way Home – are three of the most compelling and critically acclaimed films about childhood ever made. Released by the BFI on DVD for the first time in June 2008 in a two-disc set with special features, they come to Blu-ray on 27 July, alongside the Blu-ray and DVD release of Bill Douglas’s Comrades (1987).

The narrative is largely autobiographical, following Jamie (played with heart-breaking conviction by Stephen Archibald) as he grows up in a poverty-stricken mining village in post-war Scotland. In these brutal surroundings, and subject to hardship and rejection, Jamie learns to fend for himself. We see him grow from child to adolescent – angry and bewildered, but playful, creative and affectionate.

In My Childhood (1972), eight-year old Jamie lives with his granny and elder brother in a Scots mining village in 1945. With his mother in a mental home, and his father absent, he is subject to the hardships of poverty. In My Ain Folk (1973), Jamie is sent to live with his paternal grandmother and uncle; a life full of silence and rejection. My Way Home (1978) sees Jamie’s ultimate victory over his circumstances; after a spell in foster care, and a homeless shelter, he is conscripted into the RAF, where he embarks on a redemptive friendship with Robert, which allows him to emerge from his ineffectual adolescence to pursue his artistic ambition.

Watching the Trilogy is far from a depressing experience. This is cinematic poetry: Douglas contracted his subject matter to the barest essentials – dialogue is kept to a minimum, and fields, slag heaps and cobbled streets are shot in bleak monochrome. Yet with its unexpected humour and warmth, the Trilogy brims with clear-eyed humanity, and affection for an ultimately triumphant young boy.

The Bill Douglas Trilogy will be released on UK Blu-ray on 27 July 2009 at the RRP of £24.99. Special features are:

• Bill Douglas: Intent on Getting the Image (2006, 63 mins), a new documentary about Bill Douglas’s work;
• Come Dancing (1970, 15 mins), Bill Douglas’s remarkable student short;
• Archive interview with Bill Douglas (4 mins);
• Illustrated booklet containing newly commissioned essays, notes and credits.

You can read our review of the DVD release here.