BLACKBURN-BORN director Michael Winterbottom tasted success at the British Independent Film Awards in London.

The former Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School pupil won two awards for technical achievement and production on his film, In This World, about two Afghan boys in London.

The film, released on DVD in September, charts the arduous journey of economic migrants, teenager Jamal and twenty-something Enhatullah, as they make their way from a Pakistan refugee camp to England in search of a new life.

On the way the pair endure suffocating conditions in the back of lorries and are exploited by some who think they can make easy money from people who see emigration as a means to a better life.

Mr Winterbottom, 42, a former Lammack Primary School pupil, made his first film in 1995.

His passion for film making stems from his time as a 14-year-old when he visited a showing of German films at Blackburn Library.

Together with producer Andrew Eaton he started his own company, Revolution Films, in 1996. Since then he has worked with the likes of Kate Winslet, Robert Carlyle, Jimmy Nesbit and Steve Coogan and made films as varied as Jude, The Claim, Welcome to Sarajevo and 24 Hour Party People, which won two awards in 2002.

The film used two non-professional Afghan actors who were living in a Pakistan refugee camp before the film was made.

Mr Winterbottom said: "In This World was the best experience I've had in film making. I wanted audiences to experience these lives they wouldn't normally get a chance to see.

"All the way along the route we met refugees who were really making this journey. We were aware how lucky we were as a film crew.

"We had things easy, but there were these thousands of people who were risking their lives."