1945: Jamie and Tommy live an isolated existence with their maternal grandmother in Newcraighall, a Scottish mining village. Jamie’s only friendship is with Helmuth, a German prisoner of war. With his mother in a mental institution, and his father absent, he is subject to the hardships of poverty.

The three features comprising Bill Douglas’s autobiographical “Trilogy” stand among the great works of British cinema. Winner of the Silver Lion in Venice, this first chapter journeys to the postwar Scotland of Douglas’s youth for one of the most evocative impressions of childhood ever put on film.