by MATTHEW HAYS

The thick-as-soup accent on the other end of the line is unmistakable. "How are you, mate?" Martin Compston queries from his cell phone, across the pond. The neophyte actor, now 19, was plucked from a Scottish classroom some two years ago and cast in Sweet Sixteen, the stormy movie about a troubled young lad and his dealings with the mob. The response to the film has been overwhelming, managing to pick up awards on the international fest circuit; critics and audiences are again heaping praise upon director Ken Loach, whose unflinching gaze into the reality facing working-class Brits is once more on display.

But Compston, in what can only be described as a striking debut, is being credited with much of the film’s success, as Liam, the spirited young man who’s ultimately led astray by the lure of money that some rapid drug dealing can bring in. (Irony doesn’t even begin to describe the use of the word "sweet" in the title.) Compston was a student whose main passion was football (soccer) when he, along with hundreds of other students, went in for an interview with Loach and the filmmaker’s casting team. Loach had met a lot of promising young actors, but Compston had a quality the director felt suited the central character particularly well. Loach sensed that Compston’s commitment to football made him especially prepared for a round of gruelling filmmaking.

But Compston reports the entire process has been "nothing but fun. From the beginning, I really enjoyed it. I’ve made a lot of great friends, and once the film was done, I got to travel the world with it." Sweet Sixteen has picked up laurels in various places, including Cannes (where it won the Best Screenplay award last year) and London (Compston was declared the Most Promising Newcomer at this year’s British Independent Film Awards).

Fun is in the eyes of the beholder

Still, anyone who’s seen Sweet Sixteen may be surprised to hear the word "fun" associated with it. As Liam, Compston plays an intelligent young man who’s almost certainly doomed to a life of crime and sadness due to his dysfunctional family and class status. A mum in prison, violent peers and relatives, beckoning drug dealers - the odds don’t look good for Liam. "But ultimately, there is humour in it," insists Compston. "This film is a reflection of the people. Sure, some of it’s depressing - but that’s because Ken’s telling it like it really happens. That’s what a lot of poor people’s lives are like. Not just in Britain, but around the world.

"Liam’s an intelligent young fella," Compston says of the character he plays. "He’s always coming up with new schemes. But because he’s not born into the right family, he’s in real trouble. In a normal situation, he’d be becoming a doctor or a lawyer. It’s not fair that he’s not going to have a happy ending."

Compston identifies two very tough parts about making Sweet Sixteen. First was a technical point called for in the script. One sequence has Compston pick up a rock and throw it through a second story window, effectively smashing it. "I throw like a woman, it’s really embarrassing. After about 16 takes, I still couldn’t get it. They gave up on me and brought in a double!" The other complicated point was depicting a character with such a tortured relationship with his mother. "Liam and his mother are at such a great distance. My mother is probably the most important person in my life, she’s amazing. It was really hard to get my head around how Liam’s mum treated him."

Compston is understandably gratified by the accolades that are piling up for his turn in Sweet Sixteen. But he confesses to being surprised by some of the critics on his home turf. It seems some of the Scottish press didn’t like the decidedly downbeat conclusion of the feature. "In the ending, some wanted Liam to be successful. But that’s not going to happen. If we’d done that, it would have been untrue to the character and wouldn’t have been right for the story. I think it’s struck a chord because it’s the truth. Why gloss things over?"

Sweet Sixteen opens Friday, June 20

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