Director Shane Meadows Yves Salmon/Courtesy of IFC First Take

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When Shane Meadows couldn't find the sort of scrappy yet vulnerable street-wise kid he needed for the lead in his next film project, he resorted to scouring social programs for disadvantaged youth in the working neighborhoods of industrial Grimsby. Fourteen-year-old Thomas "Tommo" Turgoose demanded payment from Meadows and his casting director for the audition, confirmed that he had been ejected as an extra from a school play, and revealed, should he to get the part, he would give some of the cash to his Mum and buy a new bike for himself. He also said he had no interest in acting, but would be cool with playing a version of himself. Meadows knew he'd found his Shaun.

This Is England, the title a nod to the Clash song ("This is England/ We can chain you to the rail/ This is England/ We can kill you in a jail"), is Meadows's very personal, semi-autobiographical look back to early '80s Britain. Shaun, the victim of bullying at school, gets adopted by a bunch of amiable, fun-loving skinheads. With his shorn head, suspenders, and Doc Martins, he finds new acceptance and social freedom. But the group splinters when Combo, recently released from prison, reasserts his leadership and Shaun, suddenly confronted with the realities of the rise of racially divisive Nationalism and the aftershocks of the Falklands War, is sucked into a malevolent vortex of unhinged hatred and violence.

As with his previous award-winning films TwentyFourSeven and Dead Man's Shoes, Meadows again returns to painful recollections of his childhood. This Is England is a cathartic exploration of his own dark youth and a warning to a new generation of the dangers of racially motivated anger and the pervasive consequences of a country at war.

PREMIERE: Thatcherism, ska music, Ben Sherman shirts, braces, boots, Cromby hats — there's a great sense of nostalgia in the film. It's also very English in its essence, as well as a very personal film. How do you expect the film will be appreciated outside of the United Kingdom?
SHANE MEADOWS: The film's world premiere was in Toronto in September. And we didn't actually have a finished film in Toronto. We had an HD master. We'd only finished the mix two days before the screening. So it was nerve-wracking. And I think really seeing it [with] what was quite a diverse audience in Toronto was surprising. They laughed. Obviously, it's a personal story, but it's still a story that I think people find universal. And I think people identify with some of the things that I [included] in towns and cities all over the world. And then [at] the Rome Film Festival was the first time when Tom Turgoose, the young boy, saw it. And he got a 10-minute standing ovation from a purely Italian audience. The big test for me was when it was [screened] in the U.K., because that's when people do remember whether you're accurate or not.

Thomas "Tommo" Turgoose in This Is England Yves Salmon/Courtesy of IFC First Take

You've never filmed a period piece before. Why was it so pivotal that this be set in the '80s, and was that period difficult to recreate?
Well, obviously there were slight amendments, but really it was [based on] a period that happened in my life in 1983. So, it was very important I told that story and was accurate to it. Finding the right boy. Also the music. I really wanted to make a film about skinhead culture. I don't think there'll ever be a period like it again. It was really the birth of technology. Now kids just take things [for granted]. This was before Game Boys, before DVDs, before the Internet and information overload. In England there were only four [television] channels. So it was so important that it was set at that time. And I think, weirdly enough, [recreating something from] 20 years ago would probably be harder than a Victorian setting, because in England you know where you can go and film [the Victorian era]; there are places that are authentic. So, you go to the stately homes and put the right costumes on; whereas in England, people can still remember 20 years ago. And people can tell you if you're exactly accurate. So we had to know that that particular television program was out at that month, and that that piece of music was out then, because people pick up on those things. So, strangely enough, it was actually quite difficult. We even had a tough time finding an estate that didn't have all double glazed windows. And now we have CCTV and satellite dishes. In a way, it's harder in a city to cheat than it is to actually find things that are older. So it was a tough time for our designer, Mark Leese.