Dripping in a blood red hue, Mario Judah trudges through the woods with a shovel and the body bag of someone who committed the ultimate love crime. Channeling volumes of rage and betrayal into a dramatic 84 seconds, Mario lets loose on his ex, lamenting that he caught feelings and vowing to never be deceived again: “Never will I ever let you take my heart/I don’t think we ever can repair these scars,” belts Mario with a powerful vibrato. You can feel the anguish in every fiber of his voice, if you aren’t immediately captured by his passionate performance.
The video concludes a week-long piece of performance art that Mario enacted on social media about the real life emotional damage that cheating can cause. The 21-year-old artist expanded up on the message behind “I Cannot Love You” and its associated content in a recent Instagram post.