My Way Home is the third and final part of Bill Douglas' autobiographical trilogy. The first two parts, My Childhood and My Ain Folk, have both been shown in earlier Festivals.

Set in the 1950's, the film opens in a children's home, where Mr. Bridge, a sympathetic house-father, reluctantly lets Jamie's father take him back to the Scottish mining village (scene of the two earlier films).

Initially Jamie prefers to stay with his paternal grandmother, until she mistakenly believes him to have rejected her. His father sends him down the mine, and following an outburst from Agnes, his father's wife, Jamie returns to the Home.

He gets a job briefly in a tailor's shop as a despatc.h clerk, and he is seen in a foster home. He becomes homeless and stays in a Salvation Army hostel. Later he is conscripted into the RAF and is found in Egypt.

He meets Robert, self-sufficient and surrounded by books, and an uneasy friendship develops. Following a visit to an Arab village, Jamie begins to come to terms with himself and others, to grow out of his self-pitying and ineffectual adolescence. Through the relationship with Robert, culminating in his visit to Cairo, he arrives at a point where he can start to explore his artistic ambitions.

Bronze Hugo, Chicago.

Bill Douglas

Born and brought up in Scottish mining village. Studied at London Film School.

Features: My Childhood (1972), My Ain Folk (1973), My Way Home (1978).