The first time I saw one of Albert Serra's movies was at my first Cannes Film Festival in 2019, where his Liberté was screened in the Un Certain Regard section. I agonized through that film's torturously deliberate pace, watching its libertine aristocratic characters penetrate and piss on one another for well over two hours, all while sensing the Debussy Theater getting emptier and emptier around me as Liberté drifted along and the festival's infamous walkouts ensued. I left my seat feeling agitated, even offended. Yet, by the time I made my way into the dazzling sunlight of the Croisette a few short minutes later, a transformation had occurred: I realized I was utterly swept away by the cinema I had just experienced.

From Liberté and his follow-up, 2022's Pacifiction, I have come to obsess over the temporal experimentations in Serra's work, the force his films have to wash over the viewer with an almost tranquilizing effect, should you allow yourself to surrender to their power. Serra's latest finds him returning to his Spanish roots for the first time in many years: Afternoons of Solitude (Tardes de soledad), a documentary that intimately tracks celebrated matador Andrés Roca Rey across several bullfights in Spain. Far from operating with the glossy, sensationalized style that has become so prevalent in documentary cinema, Serra injects his unique examinations of time into Afternoons of Solitude, while also probing the deep-rooted cultural ties that leave some populations still enamored with the barbaric traditions and practices of bullfighting.

Afternoons of Solitude drops the viewer into the world of the Peruvian-born Roca, one of the world's most renowned toreros (matadors who fight on foot). Unconcerned with capturing Roca's personality or background, Serra's camera predominantly concentrates on the matador within the arena and his travels to and from the bullfights as he builds himself up and comes down from his theatrical performances. While Roca holds the documentary's center, notions of the distinctive world he inhabits come through in his interactions with the other matadors he works with, assembled as an uber-masculine hype squad constantly feeding Roca's confidence with praise, including "warrior, you are great!" and "never seen balls like that." Through the mesmeric emphasis on the comprehensive patterns of Roca's world, Afternoons of Solitude assembles itself as a departure from the "process" documentary, instead operating as one more fascinated with both the beauty and grotesquerie of ritual.

The documentary begins with an extended medium shot of a jet-black bull standing alone under dappled moonlight, evoking a chiaroscuro effect reminiscent of the director's fiction films —a visual combination of dramaturgy and remarkable composure. This introductory scene sets up the work for what is to come, blending calculated long takes and intense close-ups that accentuate the concentration of Roca's performance and the savagery of his efforts. In collaboration with director of photography Artur Tort, Sera often centrally positions his camera within the bullring, up close and personal to the action in a manner in which most audiences likely have never experienced the cruel spectacle of bullfighting, focusing on the cries and anatomies of the bulls and fighters alike, along with the blood that increasingly covers both parties as the dance of death crescendos to its lethal conclusion.

With a similarly detached brilliance that speaks to Sera's sensibilities as a filmmaker, the documentary bypasses any overt criticisms (or manipulative narration) regarding bullfighting and its outdated practices of brutality, instead allowing its hypnotic images to speak for themselves, offering space for a particular subjectivity as Afternoons of Solitude oscillates between the magnificence and violence of the sport.

As previously mentioned through the dialogue captured between the matadors, Sera's gaze remains particularly fascinated with concepts of masculinity built into the culture of bullfighting in Spain, a country that has often upheld conventional ideas of how men should behave and present themselves as machismo figures. Since the 16th century, the country's bullfighting traditions have championed the matador as the epitome of manliness. Within the context of the contemporary times in which Roca and his compatriots live, this primordial struggle of man versus beast feels especially archaic, accentuating the injustice of the drawn-out death matches that occur within the bullring.

The viciousness of this masculine mindset within the world of the matador is juxtaposed by the documentary's peripheral focus on the ceremonial elements of the sport, most potently through its emphasis on the dramatic costumes sported by the cohort of matadors. Embellished stockings and corsets serve as the base of their ensembles, overlayed by luxurious velvets and lace. When shooting outside of the fighting arena, Sera's camera fixates on the near-ritualistic act of dressing and undressing in these intricate garments, creating an intriguing clash between the intrinsic masculinity of bullfighting and the extravagance of its most performative features.

Departing from the more glamorous traditions of bullfighting, Afternoons of Solitude has no reservations about exposing the most horrific practices of the sport. Through the three acts that characterize the fights, the bulls appointed as the adversaries of the matadors are faced with a slow and painful death. The documentary's audio design accentuates the hostile sounds of metal hooks and swords as they penetrate the flesh of the bull, spilling blood all over the sand beneath their hooves and the bodies of their tormentors. As the star of his troop, Roca always serves the final blow to the bulls: sending a two-foot sword between their shoulder blades, straight to the hilt, after which a member of his team commonly cuts off one of the animal's ears to display as a hideous trophy. While there are moments of tension as Roca takes sudden hits from the bulls (nearly gored in one scene), there is an inherent inequity in all aspects of the matches, particularly since there is only one way for them to be finished: through death. The violent, repulsive power of these moments requires no analysis, no commentary, as their pure barbarity makes itself apparent. Through his unwavering approach from these conclusive segments of the fights, Sera brings forth yet another ethical contrast between the admiration garnered by Roca from his fan base and the sheer terror and humiliation the bulls face during their last breaths.

Although Sera's first feature-length documentary work, Afternoons of Solitude works as an extension of the Catalan auteur's continued fascination with the perversions of cultural and social tradition. Through employing the intrinsically unhurried pacing that characterizes his filmography, the at times challenging documentary allows onlookers to fully ruminate on the brutal happenings of the bullring and darkly marvel at the conventions in place that would enable such blood sports to persist in the contemporary. Afternoons of Solitude might not deliver a satisfying or comprehensive exposé on the centuries-old injustices of bullfighting, but anyone acquainted with the director's singular process should never come to expect a final product so cut and dry.

4/5

2024 / 125 minutes / Spain, France, Portugal / Color / In Spanish with English Subtitles

'Afternoons of Solitude' world premiered at the 2024 San Sebastian Film Festival, where it was awarded the coveted Golden Shell. The documentary begins its theatrical release in the United States on June 27, courtesy of Grasshopper Film.

‘Afternoons of Solitude’ Review: Albert Serra Examines the Savage Beauty of Spain’s Bullfighting Traditions

4/5

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