Living and ‘loving life’ in a sanatorium: interview with Radu Jude, Romanian director

‘Scarred hearts’ is a thought-provoking semi-autobiographical film based on the period Max Belceher (Romanian author) spent in a sanatorium in 1934 recovering from Pott’s disease (Tuberculosis of the spine). In this podcast Khalid Ali explores with Radu Jude (the film director) the physical and mental hardships experienced by patients with TB, as well as the sense of community and companionship that can develop during their confinement. On the 24th March 1882 Dr Robert Koch discovered the TB bacillus. Nowadays this date is hailed as the ‘World TB day’ to increase public awareness that TB still remains an epidemic claiming lives from developing countries.

Read more about this interview on the Medical Humanities blog: http://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2017/03/21/romanticizing-tubercolosis/.