Scars starts with a scene in a documentary style in which a young man undresses and shows a huge wound he acquired in a skateboard accident. The camera closes in on the 12-inch scar and the boy talks about his visit to the hospital. Then we see him skateboarding naked in a classical Italian Renaissance landscape, where he meets a girl, also naked. In voice-over we hear their conversations about scars from the past. This marks the start of a series of tableaux in which various psychological and sexual episodes from the past of the boy and girl are revealed. The camera roams lovingly and dreamily over the beautiful young bodies, while the dialogue has a more documentary character.Herbert combines a formal film language and naked bodies filmed in black & white with frighteningly precise stories, both familiar and intimate, about the vulnerability of youthful innocence. The film moves between different poles: the naked bodies are sometimes chaste, sometimes erotic, and their youth occasionally conflicts with the old Tuscan landscape, but is also inextricably linked to it. The bodies of the protagonists, brave interpretations by Carter Davis and Alexandra Rosetti, acquire an anatomical charm in the Italian light.Scars is a new step in the career of Herbert, who made his name with beautiful, unconventional videos for songs by local band R.E.M. including ‘It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’ and ‘Low’.
