AFTERNOONS OF SOLITUDE
(Tardes de soledad)
2024, 125’
Director: Albert Serra
Country: Spain, France, Portugal
Distributor: Movies Inspired
Language: OV Spanish with Italian subtitles
UNRELEASED
Following Peruvian bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey, the film offers an immersive look into the world of bullfighting, from the ritual of dressing to the silence that follows the final act. The camera lingers on the bullfighters’ gestures, the animal’s breathing, and the blood staining the golden sand: a visual experience steeped in tension, anticipation, and fragility.
Presented in competition at the 2024 San Sebastián Film Festival, where it received the award for Best Film in the International Competition, Afternoons of Solitude marks the foray into documentary filmmaking by Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra, one of the most original auteurs on the European film scene. In his encounter with reality, Serra preserves the hallmarks of his poetics by seeking the sophisticated aesthetics of his earlier works while retaining the enigmatic approach that defines his cinema. Trapped within the ritual of the spectacle, bull and bullfighter are portrayed in a rarefied, suspended atmosphere, where the splendor of the costumes, the precision of the gestures, and the brutality of a primitive ritual come to the fore. A bold, monumental work that transcends the boundaries of traditional documentary, in which bullfighting becomes a starting point for a meditation on power, death, and history.
The premiere on Saturday, 6 September, is followed by a conversation between director Albert Serra and Paolo Moretti.
BIOGRAPHY
Catalan director, screenwriter, and editor Albert Serra is one of the most sophisticated and original auteurs on the contemporary film scene. Influenced by literature, history, and myth, his works have been enthusiastically received at major international festivals. Since 2006, he has directed: Quixotic/Honor de Cavalleria (2006), El cant dels ocells (2008), The Lord Worked Wonders in Me (2011), Story of My Death (2013, Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival), The Death of Louis XIV (2016, Prix Jean Vigo), and Liberté (2019, Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival). In 2022, Pacifiction, presented in competition at Cannes, won the Louis Delluc Prize and two César Awards. In 2024, Afternoons of Solitude, his first foray into documentary filmmaking, received the Golden Shell for best film at the San Sebastián Film Festival.
Serra’s work also extends into the field of visual arts. His pieces have been exhibited in prestigious contexts such as documenta 14 (Kassel and Athens, 2017) and the Venice Biennale Arte (2015), confirming his inclination to experiment with hybrid forms that merge cinema, installations, and performance, and to freely cross the boundaries between artistic languages.