There's a psychological phenomenon known as "reactance," in which people feel they simply MUST do the thing they're told they MUSTN'T do. It helps us to feel free, to ensure we feel we can do whatever we want with our lives. By doing the things we're expressly forbidden from, we are in control. Top that off with a dose of curiosity, and you feel you have to do what you're told not to, even though you might not have even wanted it to begin with.

So when filmmaker Caveh Zahedi is commissioned by a Middle Eastern Biennial to make a film on the theme of "art as a subversive act," he is told he can do whatever he wants except make fun of the Sheik (who rules the country and finances the Biennial). So, naturally, this is exactly what he must do. What ensues is a wild ride full of antics, amusement, and pushing people's buttons, eventually ending in the film being banned for blasphemy and Zahedi threatened with arrest and a fatwa. In THE SHEIK AND I, Zahedi's reactance acts as a reflection of both himself and of the society which told him what not to do, fulfilling his original assignment."