From Albert Serra’s shocking and extraordinary bullfighting documentary to a sun-dazzled noir with Sam Riley, here are the films to bookmark for the month ahead
Afternoons of Solitude
From September 5 at the ICA
Leave ethical concerns to one side, and the Spanish art of bullfighting is an arena rich in cinematic promise, from the gold-embroidered finery to the fearsome, kabuki-like expressions worn by fighters in the ring. It’s a fact that avant-garde filmmaker Albert Serra exploits to the full in his new film, a portrait of Peruvian torero Andrés Roca Rey that is stunningly lensed by his regular cinematographer, Artur Tort. Rey is widely considered the finest practitioner of this ancient bloodsport today, and the film shows him at work in long, gruelling bouts that result in several narrow escapes for the fighter. The bulls, of course, are not quite so fortunate, but Serra does give them equal billing in this life-and-death drama, their terror and confusion captured up close until their dying moments as they are dragged unceremoniously from the arena. This both-sides approach will not be enough for some, who will doubtless question the director’s reluctance to press Rey and his coterie on the ethics of their profession. But as an elegy to an artform born of another era it’s an extraordinary achievement, shocking and beautiful at the same time.
Islands
From September 12
In this sun-sozzled noir from director Jan Ole-Gerster, Control star Sam Riley plays Tom, a washed-up tennis pro-turned-teacher at a holiday resort in Fuerteventura. Between drunken encounters at the local nightclub, he meets a young English mum, Anne (Stacy Martin), who wants one-on-one coaching sessions for her son. When her slightly overbearing hubby, Dave, shows up complaining about their hotel room, Tom sorts them with an upgrade; the group become close, until Dave disappears one night while out on a bender. Soon Anne is in the frame for suspected murder and Tom is on the brink of a shattering discovery of his own. With a charismatic turn from Riley and some brooding, high-contrast photography from cinematographer Juan Sarmiento G, this is an understated gem about the spiritual badlands of encroaching middle age, and life’s habit of making a prison of even the dreamiest of escapes.
Solo
From September 19
Solo is the third collaboration between Quebecois director Sophie Dupuis and young actor Théodore Pellerin, an engaging presence who excels here as Simon, a Montreal drag queen drawn into a volatile love affair with newcomer Olivier (Félix Maritaud), an émigré from France. Unfortunately for Simon, Olivier is also a raging arsehole, driving a wedge between him and his family and gaslighting his poor besotted lover when he dares to complain of his behaviour. But it’s a relationship Simon, who is smarting from the arrival of his absentee mother in town, just can’t seem to quit. Drawing committed performances from her leads, Dupuis does an intelligent job conveying nuances of the drag scene – its pride and its occasional vulnerability to loose talk – and serves up some delectable numbers on stage, by Marie Davidson and Perfume Genius especially.
Happyend
From September 19
The steady creep of surveillance culture into all aspects of daily life is the subject of Neo Sora’s Happyend, a sci-fi teen drama about Tokyo schoolkids bound for different paths in life. Kou (Yukito Hidaka) and Yuti (Hayato Kurihara) are friends bound by their love of techno, but when their school introduces cameras on campus in the name of pupil ‘safety’, Kou becomes drawn into student activism, while Yuti prefers to keep playing the teenage tearaway. Can their friendship survive the gathering storm? By turns charming and bittersweet, Sora’s feature-fiction debut plays like a young adult film with a conscience, buoyed by the chemistry of its cast and occasionally sunk by an earnestness exceeding its dramatic reach.
Ellis Park
From September 26
Justin Kurzel has built a career upon stories that confront the painful legacies of violence. In Ellis Park he joins composer and Bad Seeds maestro Warren Ellis in Ballarat, Australia, where a stay with his ailing parents prompts reflections on his difficult childhood and his lifelong love affair with music. These scenes prefigure another emotional journey, as Ellis goes to meet wildlife workers in Sumatra, where he’s forked out the money for a refuge caring for trafficked and abused animals. Here, we see his profound sense of awe at the team’s dedication in scenes that deepen the themes of the first half without once labouring the connection, making for an inspired portrait of the artist that doubles as a meditation on love.
