Afternoons of Solitude

Afternoons of Solitude (Tardes de soledad, 2025) is a Spanish documentary you can watch online on iFILM. Catalan director Albert Serra follows bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey through a full day of corrida — from the ritual of dressing in the traje de luces to the walk back, bloodied, when it's over.

Roca Rey is one of the most prominent active matadors in the world today, a Peruvian-born fighter who has become a dominant figure in Spanish bullrings. Serra shoots real fights. The bull dies on screen. So does Roca Rey's composure, briefly, once or twice. The camera doesn't look away — the only stance available to a filmmaker who has spent his career sitting with discomfort longer than his audience.

The film took the Golden Lion at Venice 2024. Serra builds the corrida into something between a religious rite and an endurance test, with no narration and no distance. Not for everyone — and that's precisely its value. Stream Afternoons of Solitude online on iFILM.