Nachmittage der Einsamkeit (OmU)

In the organizer's words:

With Afternoons of Solitude, Albert Serra has created his first documentary film while remaining true to his major themes: mortality, ritual and the fascination of the extreme. The focus is on the Peruvian matador Andres Roca Rey, one of the most famous bullfighters of our time. However, he is not shown as a flawless hero, but as a vulnerable body in the cycle of preparation, battle and exhaustion.

The camera remains consistently close: the snorting of the bull, the moaning of the man, the blood on white cloth. The jubilation of the arena takes place outside the image, audible only on the soundtrack. Only the intimate, almost choreographic encounter between man and animal is visible. Serra thus strips the bullfight of all spectacle and transforms it into a quiet, anthropological investigation.

Contrary to what the controversial nature of the corrida in Spain and beyond might suggest, the film avoids this debate and instead enables a philosophical experience of risk, intensity and the fragile boundary between life and death.