As far as contemporary filmmakers go, few are genuinely exciting as Radu Jude, whose rise from acclaimed but obscure Romanian auteur to arthouse darling who has decided to redefine what cinema represents has been nothing but extraordinary. My own admiration for his work is certainly well-documented, and he continues to be such a surprising and daring voice on modern filmmaking. However, looking at his slightly older work, we see that his penchant for challenging the confines of the medium previously took on a very different form, which is perfectly exemplified in Scarred Hearts (Romanian: Inimi cicatrizate), in which Jude is adapting the novel of the same title by Max Blecher, which follows a lonely young writer in the early 1930s who is committed to a sanatorium in the countryside, where he is to be treated for spinal tuberculosis, a debilitating disease that renders him incapable of living even the most ordinary of lives. He spends his days lying in a hospital bed, observing the world around him and even having a few brief flirtations with romance, staving off what he knows will be the inevitability of a premature death through cherishing every moment and finding beauty in everyday. Ostensibly a work based on the writer’s own experiences with the same disease, the novel was brought to life by Jude, who was in a period where he was interested in exploring Romanian history through engaging with stories of the past (his prior film Aferim! took a similar approach, albeit being a fictional work), and while it may not play out exactly as we would expect, his revolutionary style is still present, his directorial voice continuing to take shape as the story progresses and we begin to see various new ideas emerging in the process. An odd curio of a film that is as fascinating as it is provocative, Scarred Hearts offers keen insights into the past, doing so with the precision and dedication to subversion of popular ideas that we have come to view as synonymous with the director.

Blecher’s writing was often a combination of astute observations on life on the early 20th century, and surreal plunges into the depths of the human condition – many postmodernists still cite his work as an inspiration, and despite dying at quite a young age, he remains a highly influential figure based on his body of work. Scarred Hearts is not usually considered entirely autobiographical, but the character of Emanuel, a young writer confined to a bed in a health facility for a terminal illness, bears many similarities to him, which has led to many fascinating discussions in which we attempt to reconcile his writing with the life he led, with this being perhaps his most personal novel. An essential text that is not solely about Blecher’s struggles with his disease, but also a depiction of Romania at a very particular time in the past – it was a country that never quite fit the mould established by its neighbours, and this particular era was known to be somewhat more challenging as the country stood on the brink of major political change, with the rise of communism being less than a decade away at the time in which the author died. Jude has been a fervent and fanatical voice in terms of reflecting the history of his country, so it is only logical that he would find qualities in Blecher’s writing that intrigued and engaged his artistic sensibilities – and Scarred Hearts is as much a testament about the author’s journey as it is a depiction of Romania between the two major wars of the 20th century, with the observations made throughout being fascinating and revealing, particularly in how it focuses on the social structure and how local customs and traditions intermingle with the rapidly changing culture, all of which is beautifully captured throughout.

However, those expecting a dour and overly didactic literary adaptation are clearly in for a surprise, since Jude may be focusing on simpler and more subtle ideas, but this certainly does not prevent Scarred Hearts from being a dynamic and daring work. Much of the impact made by this film is found nestled in the execution – the film is beautifully made, with Jude capturing the gorgeous landscapes of the Romanian countryside in extraordinary detail. There is ultimately not much in terms of a storyline, with the plot essentially being a series of vignettes scattered over a few years, following the protagonist as he observes the surrounding world. As a result, a lot of effort had to be put in to evoke an environment that could plausibly be the source of inspiration for someone who fights through unspeakable pain to describe it, which is certainly not an easy feat in itself, but something that the director manages to accomplish quite beautifully. The tone that flows through the film is also unique – its undeniably dramatic and is not nearly the provocative work of darkly comedic chaos we would see become part of Jude’s full-time repertoire eventually, but it is nonetheless a very well-defined film in terms of the genre – there are a few slightly more comedic moments, which are rendered as more mildly amusing than outrageously funny, a means to show that, despite the plight of the residents of this sanatorium and their struggles with various diseases, there is still some joy to be found in every moment. It may be slightly trite, and Jude doesn’t fixate on these moments for too long, and they are ultimately just further tools in his arsenal, designed to evoke a strong and meaningful reaction while intermingling with the quieter and more poetic moments. As a whole, Scarred Hearts is an immensely compelling achievement, and Jude ensures that we are always aware of what is being said, even at its most seemingly challenging.

As much as he may actively be subverting conventions in pursuit of taking this material and turning it into something utterly memorable, Jude owes a lot of the success of Scarred Hearts to Lucian Teodor Rus, who portrays the lead and delivers a genuinely impressive performance. This is not an easy character to play – Emmanuel is a young man who spends the entirety of the film in bed, and there is only a finite amount of emotion that can be expressed when spending the entirety of the performance confined to one position for the most part – but despite these limitations, he delivers a spellbinding, heartbreakingly beautiful performance. The role is also very internal – we don’t learn much about Emmanuel at the start, with Jude actively avoiding any kind of exposition, and instead allowing the writer’s work to speak for itself, with regularly interludes where his poetic prose is presented on screen, void of clear context but where the surrounding plot ensures that we understand exactly what is being conveyed. The director takes on every challenge associated with this film with such vigour and dedication, and while it isn’t always as consistent in its vision as we may expect (since some of the supporting players are slightly neglected despite doing great work), it is all anchored by Rus’ phenomenal performance that somehow manages to be lived-in, authentic and complex, despite being entirely detached from the temporal milieux in which the film takes place. Jude has a great knack for not only casting his film well, but also bringing out the very best in his leads, so its understandable if one is unfamiliar with an actor when stepping into one of these films, but we’re certainly going to be aware of them afterwards, which is an immense gift from the director to the many actors with whom he’s worked over the years.

While Scarred Hearts may seem quite oppositional to the style we have come to expect from Jude in recent years, it is nonetheless a work in which his renegade spirit is alive and well, rarely being as sharp and direct as it was here. It’s not a film that takes too much effort to understand – unlike some of his more recent works (which are undeniable masterpieces in their own right), this isn’t an audiovisual collage that sees the director playfully deconstructing the cinematic medium through piecing together many different elements. Instead, it’s quite a linear work, following a logical structure that gradually and methodically unravels, presenting us with something far more engaging and compelling than we would initially expect. Bold and unassuming, while still carrying an immense weight in terms of the subject matter, which tends to be far heavier in practice than we may anticipate, Scarred Hearts is incredibly effective and profoundly very moving, tackling some fascinating ideas with skill and dedication to a nearly impossible premise. In the hands of someone else, the film may have been an overwrought jumble of ideas, but with Jude at the helm, a talented cast and some expertly skillful creatives working behind the camera (with the production design, cinematography, editing and music being impeccable), the film flourishes into an engaging, wholeheartedly compelling affair, and yet another work that proves that Jude is one of our great contemporary directors, and an essential voice in contemporary cinema.