The director Albert Serra won the Festival’s Golden Shell of the Cinema of San Sebastian for its documentary ‘Lonely afternoons‘, which deals with his vision of bullfighting and focuses on the figure of the bullfighter Andres Roca Rey.
“Afternoon of Solitude” was the most talked about film, due to its cinematographic quality, and the most anticipated because it addresses a controversial subject in Spanish society, such as bullfighting, from a perspective in which the director seeks objectivity while describing the life of right-hander Andrés Roca Rey, from the moment he dresses to the moment he undresses, over the course of five bullfights.
The filmmaker won the award despite the controversy in which his documentary was involved after, a few days before its broadcast at the festival, Asier Esparza, provincial coordinator of PACMA of Gipuzkoa will request the withdrawal of the screening of the documentary because it “humanizes a violent practice” and goes “against the ethical values that we should defend”.
