16-year-old Tommo befriends Marek, a Polish immigrant of the same age and a keen photographer who uses his camera lens to escape the world of his alcoholic navvy father. The boys find a refuge together in the London district of Somers Town where they can live their dreams. In this they are assisted by their eccentric neighbour Graham and Marek’s photographic muse, the French waitress Maria. Experienced Shane Meadows, known for his explicitly black-humoured detachment from social realism, made his low-budget film in black-and-white, in the city’s atmospheric yet alienating urban environment. A fictional tale about fractured family relationships, the endeavour to find redemption in friendship and the desire “not to be like our parents”, the story is firmly anchored in the architecturally unique historical location of Somers Town, whose geographical and cultural coordinates are defined by the existence of three railway stations: Kings Cross, Euston and St. Pancras.