A lot of the news stories we post tend to be, as a matter of expedience, almost word-for-word as supplied by the PR companies, though usually with the superlatives toned down or removed. But despite not having a minute of free time, every now and then we have to pause to comment on a release. Such is the case with the upcominmg DVD release of Luis Buñuel's extraordinary 1950 social drama Los Olvidados, somewhat more sensationally titled abroad as The Young and the Damned. Largely known for his surrealism and cheerful lampooning of religion and the bourgeoisie (you can see why we like him), Buñuel revealed a different side to his storytelling skills with this searingly brilliant depiction of life in Mexico's slums, which stunned audiences at the Cannes Film Festival in 1951, winning him the Best Director award and relaunching his career after a twenty-year hiatus.

The film tells the story of an unloved teenage boy, Pedro, who fights to turn his life around against the circumstances of extreme poverty and the sinister influence of an older boy, El Jaibo. Unflinchingly honest, at times surreal (there's a dream sequence whose tone and feel prefigure Eraserhead) and ultimately heartbreaking, Los Olividados is a transcendently original, game-changing piece of cinema from one of the medium's true masters and who was once praised by Alfred Hitchcock as cinema's finest director.

Described by Total Film as "a higely influential, matter-of-factly briulliant film," Los Olvidados (cert. 15) will be released on DVD (£15.99) by InD/3DD Home Entertainment on 13th September 2010 as a 60th Anniversary Edition. Special Features include a specially commissioned interview with internationally renowned film critic, Derek Malcolm.