There is a shocking moment halfway through Albert Serra’s bullfighting documentary, Afternoons of Solitude: the Peruvian matador Andrés Roca Rey is caught between the horns of the bull he is fighting and it slams him with brutal force against the wooden hoarding lining the arena. If the horns had struck a few inches either way, he may not have walked out of the bullring.
It’s the kind of episode that both fans of bullfighting and its detractors might cite as they make their respective arguments: those in favour would point to the drama and bravery involved, while those who are opposed would question such needless danger, especially when it involves tormenting and killing an animal.
The argument has existed as long as bullfighting has, but it has become more heated in recent years as the activity’s future has become less certain and its values have fed into Spain’s culture war.
That conflict was more apparent than ever last year, when the culture minister, Ernest Urtasun, announced the elimination of the annual national bullfighting prize, worth €30,000, stating that “the torture of animals” should not be rewarded. Urtasun, of the left-wing government, faced a fierce backlash from bullfighters, conservatives and members of the far right, who defended bullfighting’s status as a Spanish tradition with a rich cultural heritage.
However, a new version of the prize has been created this year, awarded by the conservative-controlled senate instead of the government. The winner was Albert Serra for his film (the co-winner was a national association of bull farmers) and, during a prize ceremony last month at which there were swipes at the culture ministry, the president of the senate, Pedro Rollán, said: “In the world of bullfighting there is no room for fraud; defending bullfighting means defending our history and our culture.”
Afternoons of Solitude follows Roca Rey as he performs in bullrings in Madrid, Bilbao, Santander and Seville in 2023. There are no interviews and there is no narration, with the camera following the matador in the ring, in his hotel room, and as he is ferried to and from bullfights along with his entourage.
Roca Rey, who is blessed with boyish, slightly blank looks, barely speaks and remains an enigma throughout (“You don’t know if he’s full of spirituality, or, on the contrary, completely empty,” Serra told Vanity Fair magazine). When his group of chattering banderilleros, who play a supporting role in his bullfights, go to laughable extremes as they praise him – “You’re so great! What balls you have!” one tells him – his expression suggests that he might not even be interested in their compliments.
The other main focus of the film are the bulls he kills. While we witness every grimace of concentration and nervous twitch on the face of the matador, the camera also lingers on the glistening wounds of the animal and microphones pick up its increasingly laboured breaths and snorts as it is worn down and killed, to heartrending effect for the viewer.
Unusually, Afternoons of Solitude has impressed people on both sides of the bullfighting fence.
When it was unveiled at the San Sebastián film festival in September, the animal rights party Pacma decried the film and called for it to be withdrawn. Instead, it went on to win the festival’s Golden Shell for best film, with the jury declaring that it “opens up debate”.
Serra, who has said he is a fan of bullfighting but that this should not matter in the making of the film, insisted that Afternoons of Solitude should be watched before judgment was passed. It turns out he was right, with animal rights campaigners now no longer attacking it and instead calling for under-16s to be kept out of bullfights to match the film’s 16 certificate.
“Fans of bullfighting saw in it the praising of honour, of bravery; admiration for the confrontation between the bull and death which glorified the beauty of its uniqueness,” noted news site eldiario.es. By contrast, it added: “Those who oppose bullfighting saw a portrait that was so savage and violent it made bullfighting indefensible.”
Afternoons of Solitude is unlikely to bring the two sides of the bullfighting debate any closer, especially given the pastime’s political baggage in a deeply polarised Spain. Many on the left, including Sumar, the junior partner in the governing coalition, oppose bullfighting. Meanwhile, the right tends to defend it (until recently, the vice-president of the Valencia region was Vicente Barrera, a retired bullfighter from the far-right Vox party).
But what almost everyone agrees on is that, for all its beauty and savagery, Afternoons of Solitude is a remarkable artistic achievement.
