Could there be a vein of autobiography to this low-budget British comedy about low-budget British film-making?

Certainly the details ring true. Justin Edgar's tale focuses on a failed thirtysomething film director (Dominic Coleman), onetime star of the "Walsall film festival", who takes a job teaching a bunch of disabled teenagers. Naturally they make a movie together; it all goes wrong; and important lessons are learned along the way.

At times Special People feels hobbled by the very political correctness it wants to poke fun at; still, it's nicely observed and crisply played, gently confounding a gaggle of prejudices during the course of a svelte 81-minute run.