Audrey Tautou plays an illegal Turkish immigrant

His movie, which opens in America on Friday, tells the tale of a virtually invisible community of illegal immigrants, living hand-to-mouth in London.

It stars Amelie actress Audrey Tautou as a Turkish maid and Chiwetel Ejiofor as a Nigerian doctor who flees to England.

Frears said: "All the film really is saying is these people are human beings like anybody else."

'Violently'

The film is released as a recent report revealed anti-Muslim violence and discrimination are rising in the US.

Frears said that some people in the US may be "reacting rather violently against where they imagine these people come from".

He said: "The movie is on the side of tolerance."

But he denied that the movie was political and said the main aim was to entertain.

Frears is one of the UK's most respected directors.

His past films include The Grifters, My Beautiful Laundrette and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid.

He admitted he had never been able to crack the secret to Hollywood success.

"I believe there is some secret. But I never found anyone to tell me what the secret was."