Can’t Stop Eating is documentary film that follows the lives of several people with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS).
The film is set in Gretton House, near Kettering in England, which is a government-funded care home deliberately constructed to assist people with PWS.
Prader-Willi syndrome is a rare genetic disorder in which seven genes (or some subset thereof) on chromosome 15 (q 11-13) are deleted or unexpressed (chromosome 15q partial deletion) on the paternal chromosome.
The film focuses on a new resident, Joe Blackburn, who is 21 and begins the documentary weighing over 30 stone (190 kg, 420 lbs) and with fears for his health. The plot follows his struggle to integrate with existing members of the home.
The second resident that the documentary focuses on is Tamara Allwood, who was at one point close to death from overeating but by the time of filming has gained enough autonomy to gain the rights to visit her mother in London.
27-year-old Tamara has become estranged from her mother, who has never properly understood Tamara’s illness, which was diagnosed relatively late in her life.