Afternoons of solitude by Albert Serra, at the Truffaut cinema

The renowned filmmaker Albert Serra presented this past Tuesday, December 3, his new documentary Tardes de Soledad at Cinema Truffaut in Girona , as part of the Temporada Alta Festival . The official premiere of the documentary will be on March 7, 2025. The director of photography and editor Artur Tort , the sound designer Jordi Ribas and Montse Triola , Serra's partner in the production company Andergraun Films , collaborated on this film. It has been co-produced by Spain, France and Portugal, with Arte France Cinéma , Idéale Audience and Lacima Producciones .

After the screening of the documentary, a panel discussion and a round of questions were held with the attendees, in which Serra shared his reflections on his work, the creation process and the central themes of the film. During this debate space, a dialogue was generated between the filmmaker and the audience, who were able to appreciate first-hand the ideas that arise from this documentary. Also present at the event were Guillem Terribas , bookseller and Catalan cultural activist, and Imma Merino , professor of Cinema History and Theory at the UdG. According to Merino "this documentary is a tragedy that always ends the same way: with the death of the bull. And every now and then, they kill a bullfighter".

For his part, Àngel Quintana , from the group of critics of Cinema de Girona, affirmed that "This film is a visual experience of great beauty, but also an immersive experience of great hardness, which shows the struggle between man and the beast without any concessions. For some viewers, it can be difficult to see and endure because of its violence. The film begins with the image of a bull in the middle of an extreme fire from here, we go inside the plazas. We never see the audience, only the man who will face the bulls, the members of his gang, and the animals." Quintana also points out that "once again, Albert Serra puts the myth at the center of his work, in this case, the myth of bullfighting. The visual background of his images reminds us of Goya, Manet, Zuloaga, Picasso , Sorolla, among others.The documentary captures the bullfighter's movements and the bull's blood from its wildest side.Tardes de Soledad also destroys all clichés, moving away from folklore and the old idea of "national holiday". He prefers to transform his documentary into a horror film.

Albert Serra presentant Tardes de Soledad al Cinema Truffaut de Girona.

Cruelty, beauty and fascination with death

It must be said that the origin of this documentary was driven by Jordi Balló , director of the Master's in Documentary at Pompeu Fabra University, who proposed to Serra the possibility of shooting a film. Although the Catalan director initially refused, as he preferred fiction, he told him that, if he ever made one, it would be on the subject of bullfighting.

From there, Serra, who received the Gold Medal in Fine Arts last week, began visiting different bullrings to see what was happening in the bullfights, and what caught his attention the most it was the theme of the death that occurred in the struggle between the beast and the man. The protagonist chosen for the documentary was the Peruvian bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey . According to Serra, "following the same production procedure that I use in all my fiction films, I trusted that the camera would be able to capture what is invisible to the human eye, showing us not only the reality, but also the poetry and a certain beauty. This can reflect moments of cruelty present in the film, something I really like."

Tardes de soledad, Albert Serra (2024)

Serra added that "from here, the film developed on its own and grew, and it should be noted that it goes beyond a simple documentary. On a plastic and fantasy level, a mixture of tones is created , combining more serious moments... In short, the filming of this documentary has allowed me to access a great degree of intimacy and proximity to the life of the main bullfighter bullfighting, but a portrait of Andrés Roca Rey, who for me is a very special person, and he is the one who really interested me, despite his ambiguities."

The documentary can also be seen through the Movistar+ platform, which will broadcast it in its streaming mode. Movistar has bought the rights to broadcast this film, which recently won the San Sebastian International Film Festival . As for Albert Serra's future projects, he has announced that he plans to film his next film in Russia, with one of his regular actors, Lluís Serrat , who will represent the life of a fugitive who wants to escape from mafias of this country.