The stars of award-winning movie The Goob turned out to its Norwich premiere last night.
Director Guy Myhill gave the film's title role to a teenager who was 'street cast' in Dereham town centre, and he gave another role to his builder, who was working on his house in Norwich.
For he was determined that the coming-of-age movie - set variously at Swaffham Raceway, Necton Diner and Fenland - was 'authenticly' Norfolk.
The movie centres on Goob Taylor, who fights with brutal, womanizing stock car racer Gene Womack for his mother's attention, and falls for the exotic charms of a pretty foreign field worker.
And speaking at its premiere at Cinema City, Myhill said it felt like coming home.
'I'm still struck by how beautiful it is here,' he said. 'We've shown [The Goob] twice at preview screenings and they've been blown over by Norfolk.
'There's nowhere else in the UK like it, and people have really responded to that.'
The film's stars turned out for its sell-out premiere - including Sean Harris, who was born in Lowestoft and won a Bafta award for his role in Channel 4's Southcliffe; 21-year-old Liam Walpole who plays Goob, and was a teenager when cast for the role in his hometown of Dereham; and Joe Copsey, a Tuckswood builder and now an actor, after working on Myhill's house and being cast for a role.
Other cast members who could not make it include former S Club 7 singer Hannah Spearritt from Gorleston and former Gresham's School pupil Sienna Guillory who has appeared in crime series Luther.
The Goob was shot in 2013 and has been around the globe, with its world premiere at Venice Days Festival.
It was crowned the winner of the Golden Hitchcock - the top award at Brittany's Dinard British Film Festival.
Myhill said its Norwich premiere felt like things had 'come full circle'.
'I don't know how the audience is going to take it,' he said. 'We could go on later and get booed.
'But it's great to come back and it feels like coming home.
'It feels like we've been on a hot air balloon and now we're landing.'
The idea for the film came after Myhill visited Swaffham Raceway while making a Channel 4 documentary.
'I had made a film about the stock car track and I liked the idea of this man going round and round and being stuck,' he explained. 'So from a story point of view, if one's stuck, one gets away.
'I've known Sean [Harris] for a long time and it was important for the world I was trying to create to have local actors.
'He's from Lowestoft and my intention was I wanted him to play that part.
'That was the bedrock of the story.'
Myhill was determined that the cast were local and knew the Norfolk accent.
'If you try to get someone who's not from the area who doesn't know that Norfolk tongue, they sound like they're from Somerset,' he said. 'It was always about that authenticity.'
The film shows Norfolk's big skies, the flat landscapes of the Fens and creates a potent atmosphere.
It was Walpole's acting debut, and many of his friends were at the premiere last night.
'He's good,' said Myhill. 'He has a great physicality.
'I always say he looks like [David] Bowie and Spock from Star Trek.'
Walpole said it was 'really strange' to act in a film set in the area where he grew up.
'The thing that quite blew my mind was how many components come together behind it all,' he added.
Myhill said the awards that the film won were unexpected, adding: 'It's been a great ride!'
The Goob, which is rated 18, opens at cinemas including Cinema City and Norwich Odeon tomorrow.
There will be a special question and answer session featuring members of the cast at Cinema City after Saturday's showing.
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