Spanish director Albert Serra’s distressing film Afternoons of Solitude opens with a close-up of a nervous bull. Soon other bulls begin to move around in the darkness, looking directly into the camera, as though they could anticipate what is to come.

Afternoons of Solitude depicts the sport of bullfighting through the performances of its young star from Peru, Andrés Roca Rey. Fair warning: the director truly shows what this bloody, masculine performance is fundamentally about. Serra does not shield the viewer from blood, nor the agony of the bull’s slow and futile death caused by man’s vanity.

In addition to the actual arena, there are two more settings in the film: Rey’s dressing room in a glamorous hotel, and the car that transports Rey and his posse to the next performance. At each of them, the skills of cinematographer Artur Tort and Serra’s direction uphold a powerful intensity, as though portraying performance art.

Rey’s performances are recorded without explanation, focusing on the matador´s gestures and expressions, and his and his assistants’ words and actions in the situation itself, a challenging but excellent narrative device. The script is the same every time: the ritualistic preparation for slaughter in the hotel room adorned with images of the Virgin Mary, praising the matador’s skills in the car, and commending his superior “cojones” in the arena.

Jaana Semeri (translated by Adrian Murtomäki)