Shane Meadows' 'Somers Town' bloom

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Shane Meadows' latest film "Somers Town" has an interesting history.

Somewhat incongruously for a film from one of British independent cinema's rising stars, it was funded by a railway company and is essentially an advert. Don't let that put you off though, because it's brilliant.

Meadows was approached last year by Eurostar -- who operate the cross-channel train service from the UK to continental Europe -- to make a feature to coincide with the rail firm's new multimillion dollar refit of London's St. Pancras station.

As part of the overhaul Eurostar paid for the redevelopment of the area surrounding the station, known as Somers Town (if you hadn't already guessed).

Meadows' movie is an extraordinarily warm-hearted coming-of-age drama about the unlikely friendship between two teenage boys who live in the area, one the son of a Polish immigrant who works on the new terminal and the other an English runaway (played by Thomas Turgoose, who won massive plaudits for his lead role in Meadows' last movie, "This is England", and steals the show once again here.)

Meadows and his scriptwriter Paul Fraser were given total creative control by the company and there is no hint of the Eurostar brand anywhere in the feature.

That said, the film entirely fills its brief in that -- and without wanting to give too much away -- it does provide just about the best reason I can think of for visiting Paris.

The film's unconventional path to the big screen might sit oddly on another director's CV, but Meadows has never been afraid to flout convention.

Born and raised in the English Midlands town of Uttoxeter, he dropped out of school when he was still a teen. After a few scrapes with the law -- including an embarrassing court appearance where he was laughed at by the judges for stealing a breast pump from a local chemists -- he started making short films using friends and family as cast.

With nowhere to show their work, he and his friends started their own film festival in the local cinema.

He was making one new short every month at this time, and his prodigious efforts eventually bore fruit when he was asked by the UK television station, Channel 4 to make a documentary for a series about Britain's underclass.

The result was a film called "King of the Gypsies" about a bare-knuckle boxer born in Uttoxeter who Meadows had known for many years.

This early feature, like most of Meadows' later work, draws on his working-class roots. All his films to date -- "Somers Town" is the first exception -- have been set in the Midlands, and are often heavily autobiographical.

"I suppose my films have always been based on my own experience, my own past and life," he tells CNN. "I think that's what I care about and that's what I'm obviously passionate about -- the people, the area which I grew up in has inspired me greatly."

Released in 2006, "This is England" was the first of his films where a positive critical reception was matched by success at the box office and tells the story of a young boy called Shane Fields (clearly Meadows' childhood self) who joins a gang of 'skinheads.'

Set in 1980s Britain, the film was most notable for the critically-acclaimed performance of Turgoose as the young Shane. All the more remarkable since Turgoose -- "discovered" by Meadows at a youth centre in the Midlands town of Grimsby -- was just 11 at the time and totally untrained.

Even so the precocious youngster must have had some inkling of his worth since he only agreed to turn up for the audition on the condition he was paid £5 ($10).

For "Somers Town" the director admits to having stepped out of his comfort zone. Not only has he stopped mining his past for raw material but the movie also contains a number of scenes in Polish between Marek (played with beautiful restraint by Piotr Jagiello) and his laborer dad.

Meadows says making the film on relatively foreign turf marks an important learning curve.

"It's been quite an eye-opener that I don't always have to have this deeply painful experience of my own to put into films," he says. "There were none of my own experiences in there, and I've still managed hopefully to make a film that touches and moves people."

An authentic voice for Britain's working class in his earlier films, in "Somers Town" Meadows expands his sympathetic eye to shed light on another underclass -- the masses of migrant workers that have come to the UK from Eastern Europe in recent years.

The director says he was keen to use the film to counter hostility towards the large volume of Poles that have moved here since their country became a full EU member four years ago.

He says he wanted to "humanize" Poles for British audiences in the face of this backlash (not helped by scare-mongering media headlines) that has sometimes spilled over into racist attacks.

The fact that Meadows has been able to do this and make the film he wanted on his own terms is probably the most remarkable achievement of "Somers Town," given how it came about.

Anyway, enough of that. Who fancies a trip to Paris?