The Moment of Truth

Miguel is from a poor village in southern Spain. He does not want to work the fields and goes to the city. He can find nothing in Madrid; he tries hauling, building and street selling. Then he goes into bullfighting. A manager takes him on and trains him. He rises: posters, money, crowds and newspapers. Then he is injured. He has no time to wait for it to heal, because the whole arrangement depends on his going into the ring. Francesco Rosi directs. Miguel Mateo Miguelín, a real matador, plays Miguel. It is a film made in Spain by an Italian director, and the ring sequences were shot at real fights with real bulls; because the performer is a professional the scenes are not reconstructions. The subject is not bullfighting but a person being turned into an industry. Around Miguel there is a manager, a promoter, a trader and a journalist, and all of them take a share. Rosi works by documentary method; the crowds are real, the places are real and the cutting resembles news footage. The film does not honour bullfighting; the killing of the animal is shown in detail and those scenes are distressing. The narrative begins like a story of escape from poverty and becomes one of exhaustion. Who it is for: viewers who follow Italian political cinema and realist narratives about sport. Who it is not for: the violence to animals is real, the pace is slow, and the ending is without hope.