Following the self-taught international painter Jean-Marc Calvet as he retraces the epic narrative of his misspent life, this documentary is a penetrating portrayal of paranoia, drug abuse and the search for redemption. The documentary is framed as an extended monologue, just Calvet himself explaining his history. His travels have taken him through the French foreign legion, the police force, private security for an American Mafioso, the theft of $600,000, and a deep spiral into drug and alcohol addiction that culminates in a three month binge locked in a house on his own, ripping the furniture apart and proving unable to master the inner horrors of his mind. Calvet is such a magnetic and eloquent figure that the choice to leave the narrative solely to him – no interviews with friends or family, and even the documentarist’s interjections are severely curtailed – is the natural one.

Calvet’s painting, a cathartic skill discovered at the end of his horrific isolated binge, has led him to a more contemplative position. The search for the son whom he abandoned marks the redemptive part of the film. The second part of the documentary moves the narrative into an analytic mode. His obsessive and continuous painting throughout the narrative is clearly one way of dealing with the past – but the search for his son and a chance to rectify some of the mistakes he has made drives CALVET. Ultimately, his art does not address the roots of his problems. The great success of this documentary is in allowing the film be a conduit for his ultimate release.