Romania, 1937. A young man spends his days at a sanatorium on the Black Sea coast, suffering from bone tuberculosis. Falling in love with another patient, he narrates their attempts to live life to the fullest as their bodies slowly fade away but their minds refuse to give up. This refreshingly unconventional drama is loosely based on Jewish Romanian author Max Blecher’s autobiographical novel Scarred Hearts, written before he died at age 29, after ten years of suffering. Ironically, the hero is never seen scribbling anything in Radu Jude’s (Aferim!) latest. Instead, Jude’s quiet direction allows us to witness an almost surreal carnival of vitality and wry humor in a Magic Mountain–like setting, while outside the hospital, fascism is on the rise.

With an introduction by Declan Spring, the American publisher of author Max Blecher’s Adventures in the Immediate Reality.