Synopsis:
Addicted to Love is a lyrical documentary that looks at the emotional and psychological roots of chronic addiction. Filmmaker Tanya Stephan was given exceptional access to Barley Wood, a residential treatment centre that takes some of the country’s most severe drug addicts, many with a criminal history. What emerged was a surprising film about love.
The film weaves together four people’s stories as they work through six weeks of treatment. Their therapy is set against the fading beauty of a Victorian estate with luscious grounds, and atmospheric views of the Somerset countryside.
Claudette is attractive, blonde and at 31 is physically unscarred by 12 years of heroin use. But her charm and flirtatiousness hide a darker past as she reveals that she had to sleep with dealers to get drugs. Only heroin gave her the warmth and comfort that she had looked for in relationships. George is young, bald and covered in tattoos, a man with a visibly violent past. As his story unfolds and his sensitive character emerges, we come to understand his shocking relationship with his father.
Along with Cathy and Jeff who struggle to stick with the treatment on offer, their stories make clear that drugs are only part of the much deeper problem of addiction. We intimately observe the intensity of the patients’ therapy sessions opening up the complex patterns in their past and present emotional lives.
Addicted to Love humanises the problem of addiction and reminds us that a compulsive nature is potentially within all of us. The film also highlights the fragile nature of any treatment for chronic addiction. Only some of those leaving will stay clean and some may not even survive. But at least a number are able to break a lifetime of destructive addiction.
Synopsis:
Addicted to Love is a lyrical documentary that looks at the emotional and psychological roots of chronic addiction. Filmmaker Tanya Stephan was given exceptional access to Barley Wood, a residential treatment centre that takes some of the country’s most severe drug addicts, many with a criminal history. What emerged was a surprising film about love.
The film weaves together four people’s stories as they work through six weeks of treatment. Their therapy is set against the fading beauty of a Victorian estate with luscious grounds, and atmospheric views of the Somerset countryside.
Claudette is attractive, blonde and at 31 is physically unscarred by 12 years of heroin use. But her charm and flirtatiousness hide a darker past as she reveals that she had to sleep with dealers to get drugs. Only heroin gave her the warmth and comfort that she had looked for in relationships. George is young, bald and covered in tattoos, a man with a visibly violent past. As his story unfolds and his sensitive character emerges, we come to understand his shocking relationship with his father.
Along with Cathy and Jeff who struggle to stick with the treatment on offer, their stories make clear that drugs are only part of the much deeper problem of addiction. We intimately observe the intensity of the patients’ therapy sessions opening up the complex patterns in their past and present emotional lives.
Addicted to Love humanises the problem of addiction and reminds us that a compulsive nature is potentially within all of us. The film also highlights the fragile nature of any treatment for chronic addiction. Only some of those leaving will stay clean and some may not even survive. But at least a number are able to break a lifetime of destructive addiction.