Rating: NR | Runtime: 125 minutes
Release Date: March 7th, 2025 (Spain) / June 27th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: A Contracorriente Films / Grasshopper Film
Director(s): Albert Serra
Writer(s): Albert Serra

You think we shut their mouths?

Can you really call something a ‘fight’ if your opponent must first be stabbed enough times to lose enough blood so its tongue is hanging in abject fatigue before the real battle begins?

Albert Serra’s Afternoons of Solitude works precisely because it portrays Peruvian matador Andrés Roca Rey’s career with a fly-on-the-wall approach. He provides no narration or context insofar as the original purpose of bullfighting or why it still exists today. He merely films its violent dance with as much objectivity as possible so audiences can decide whether the imagery is beautiful, abhorrent, or both.

I’m glad we almost watch Rey die three times since drama only exists if we know the bull might get his vengeance (they’re dead as soon as they enter the arena, so victory is impossible). The fight is therefore more about matador vs. audience than matador vs. bull. The former toys with the latter to enthrall the crowd and that need to entertain is what affords the animal the opportunity to deliver what everyone really wants: a mauling.

There’s also a lot to chew on concerning the hypocrisy of machismo via the costuming (I cannot believe Rey can even move after watching him get dressed), sycophancy (Rey’s entourage lauding him as an immortal God before commiserating about thinking he died once he’s out of earshot), and psychopathy (calling an unnecessary, fixed ‘fight’ courageous rather than idiotic). Because any meaning bullfighting might have possessed should be explicitly rendered hollow by a modern society.

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Andrés Roca Rey in AFTERNOONS OF SOLITUDE; courtesy of Grasshopper Film.