A university graduate went underground to film her first documentary about an unusual form of farming.

Elvina Neva, a former film at Middlesex University, in The Burroughs, Hendon, looked at the way vegetables are grown in abandoned sections of the London Underground.

The farming project, called Growing Underground, was the brainchild of previous Middlesex University film graduate, Richard Ballard.

Elvina, who graduates this summer, said: “Hydroponic cultivation has become really big news in the last 18 months. When I first decided to cover Growing Underground, no one knew about it at that time.

“Since then, some really big media companies have picked up on it too, so I’ve needed to work even harder to find fresh angles to investigate. That’s all part of the challenge though.”

The 22-year-old and her film crew had to work in isolated, sometimes unnerving conditions, and carry equipment from tracking dollies and tripods to cameras and lights up and down a narrow spiral staircase to reach the locations.

Elvina is originally from Lithuania but now lives in East Finchley, and has started her own independent film company – Halfway West.