Rather than editorialise, Serra simply refuses to look away. The result is a film that exposes the unsporting violence underpinning the spectacle with a clarity no polemic could match.

The Spanish auteur’s mesmerising bullfighting documentary shows the beauty and the barbarism of the controversial tradition.

Afternoons of Solitude is an unblinking look at bullfighting and the surrounding culture of bravado and machismo, expertly shot and edited with a sense of ritualistic order imbibed directly from the sport.

The film, like Roca Rey himself, hovers unforgettably between life and death, choreography and chaos, beauty and barbarism.