TARDES DE SOLEDAD

Albert Serra, the enfant terrible of Spanish and French cinema – as shown by his previous films Pacifiction (which won two César awards) and Liberté (Special Jury Prize winner at Un Certain Regard in Cannes) – returns his gaze to Spain to explore peak Spanishness – bullfighting. This documentary follows a day in the life of the Peruvian matador Andrés Roca Rey, whose intimate experience we follow from the moment he dons the bullfighter’s costume until he sheds blood. The Catalan filmmaker triumphed at San Sebastian, winning the Golden Shell, with this stunning work of staging that combines immense aesthetic beauty with the inherent brutality of the national fiesta, revealed like never before. A work that is not at all complacent about the mysterious art of bullfighting; “half vice and half ballet”, as Camilo José Cela defined it.