I Am A Sex Addict

In 1992, the festival presented a programme entitled Cinea Narcissus, about a film makers who are also centre stage in front of the camera. Caveh Zahedi was part of that programme with a Little Stiff. His latest film would also have fit into the programme beautifully. Zahedi has turned the narcissistic film into a noble art. The film is entirely autobiographical. Zahedi plays himself in scenes from his life; the story of a man in his twenties who becomes addicted to sex with prostitutes and who is unable to suppress his own addiction, not even when he becomes involved in a steady relationship or gets married. He undertakes all kinds of attempts to escape from his obsessive behaviour, but without much success. It’s only when he attends meetings with fellow sufferers (Sex Addicts Anonymous) that he at least finds reassurance in the fact that he’s not the only one with this problem. Put this way, Zahedi’s story sounds serious and realistic, but that is not the way the film has been made. The comic exhibitionism and the way the film often directly addresses the viewer are more absurdist than realistic. The film is reminiscent of the psychological satire of modern comedies of manners the way Woody Allen makes them. Zahedi is, even when he plays himself, above all a comic actor. (GjZ)