This week we’re excited to present a conversation from the 62nd New York Film Festival with Afternoons of Solitude director Albert Serra. An NYFF62 Spotlight selection, Afternoons of Solitude opens at Film at Lincoln Center on June 28. Get tickets at filmlinc.org/solitude

This conversation was moderated by FLC Vice President, Programming, Florence Almozini.

Albert Serra trains a patient and poetic lens on the dazzling pomp and devastating brutality of bullfighting in his new documentary portrait of the charismatic Peruvian-born star torero Andrés Roca Rey. Intensely in-the-moment, Afternoons of Solitude expertly balances the visceral thrill of the battle inside the ring, pitting animal instinct against human technique, with a filmmaking style that allows the viewer to appreciate the emotional and physical toll the violence takes on both man and beast. Unflinching yet reflective, Serra’s film is a monumental depiction of the persistence of the primitive in the present day, while acknowledging the extraordinary skill of the man who puts his life and spiritual endurance at risk as he faces down rampaging nature.