The Matador
Directors: Stephen Higgins and Nina Gilden Seavey
Year: 2008
Country: USA
Duration: 74 minutes
Source: Siren
Web: www.sirenvisual.com.au
Young, beautiful and athletic, David Fandila - aka ‘El Fandi’ - is a young matador with a growing fan base. Since childhood, he has aspired to become a matador, and as the film opens he is ranked as one of the best in Spain. Now he dreams of being one of only twelve matadors to complete one-hundred corridas in a season, the supreme challenge for a bullfighter.
Telling a story not just about a man driven by his desire to be the best but about family, culture, and tradition, The Matador offers a rare insight into corrida de toros. The audience is taken behind the scenes in order to explain the web of often-contradictory impulses that compel matadors to risk their lives, and offered a glimpse into both the meditative poetry and the bloodied violence of the bullfight. Beyond Fandila’s personal quest, the film examines the role of bullfighting in Spain and the conflict between those who see it as a noble tradition and those who condemn it for its primitive cruelty.
Evocatively shot, and driven by a powerful score by John Califra, The Matador offers an insight into one man’s experience in the plaza de toros.