  The recent experimental fabrication of ultra stable glass films via vapour
deposition [Science 315, 353 (2007)] and the observation of front-like response
to the annealing of these films [Phys.Rev.Lett. 102, 065503 (2009)], have
raised important questions about the possibility of manipulating the properties
of glass films and addressing fundamental questions about kinetics and
thermodynamics of amorphous materials. Central to both of these issues is the
need to establish the essential physics that governs the formation of the
ultra-stable films and their subsequent response. In this paper we demonstrate
that a generic model of glassy dynamics can account for the formation of
ultra-stable films, the associated enhancement of relaxation rates by a factor
of 10^5, the observation of front-like response to temperature jumps and the
temperature dependence of the front velocity
