Spanish children grapple with tradition in The Boy and the Light Suit

The new documentary tells the story of a boy living in a small town in Spain, whose family expected him to become a professional bullfighter.

This may seem an unusual career choice in an era when bullfighting is considered a cruel and outdated sport, mainly due to animal welfare issues.

However, social attitudes in some parts of Castellón were not quite as progressive as in nearby Valencia and Barcelona, ​​and the boy’s grandfather, unmindful of the controversy surrounding bullfighting, encouraged him My son pursues bullfighting.

A new documentary, The Boy and the Light Suit, which has just premiered at the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival, follows young Borja and his relationship with his grandfather, Matias, over many years.

Director Inma De Reyes, from Castellón, grew up with bullfighting in the heart of her hometown and watched bullfights on television but did not realize her birthplace is considered the bullfighting capital of Spain .

“It’s a small city where time hasn’t passed, people have very traditional jobs, they work as fishermen, orange growers or bullfighters, and every so often there will be a traditional religious celebration. teacher.

“So I consider my hometown a place where nothing has changed. That’s why I left, I didn’t fit in there, I wanted to explore the world and find out who I was outside of that place.

“And by going back and making films there, that’s how I started to look more deeply into how families place value on children and how children’s personalities are being formed.”

When de Reyes began looking for a subject for a documentary, her mother sent her local newspaper articles highlighting the tradition of bullfighting, and the filmmaker opened up a world she had previously “not seen.” care about”.

“My grandfather owned books and posters about bullfighting, but I think that was something many generations ago,” De Reyes recalls. “I had no idea how big this culture was.”

A friend of the Spanish director, now living in Edinburgh, connected her with a bullring, through which she eventually met Borja.

This activity sees the bullfighter, often dressed in brightly colored and decorated clothing, attempting to subdue, immobilize or kill a bull, in a ring before a live audience.

In the film, it is clear that Matias nurtures his unfulfilled dream of becoming a professional bullfighter and pins his ambitions on his nephew succeeding where he failed, partly in the hope Hopefully that can help the family escape poverty.

Coming from a difficult background, Borja felt limited by a life of seemingly few opportunities and had to follow his family’s wishes from the start.

Producer Aimara Requiem said that becoming a bullfighter was a “romantic idea”, adding: “That’s what Borja is after.”

“Everyone sees the bullfighter as a status figure, you don’t think about killing people. As a child, he was dreaming like his family. ‘Oh, oh, he’ll stand up there ‘.

“It’s a theatrical event, in a sense it’s quite camp, you dress up, the mothers are very proud. But then you have to kill the bull, that’s the biggest paradox.”

Filmed over five years, The Boy and the Light Suit does not shy away from the controversy surrounding bullfighting.

Borja witnessed protesters storming the ring in a fight with banners reading “No Violence”.

However, for a film with bullfighting as its focus – it has remarkably few bullfighting scenes. Instead, it’s the setting for a sophisticated coming-of-age story about adolescence, family, and poverty.

“We knew the movie couldn’t have a bullfighting scene in the foreground,” de Reyes said. “Borja’s coming-of-age story had to be front and center, and make the film watchable.

“You can watch bullfighting on YouTube, I’m not interested in recording anything anymore. It’s about building character at a young age.”

On a practical level, there weren’t many bullfights going on either – only two took place while the documentary was filming.

De Reyes, who now lives in Edinburgh, describes Borja’s personality as “gentle and thoughtful” – a personality that may not be suitable for the world of bullfighting.

“At first, I was impressed by Borja’s dedication and how diligent he was in carrying out his duties. He almost said, ‘this is what I was asked to do and this is what I will do’ . I think I’m a great kid,” de Reyes said.

“And as time passes, I hope you can see in the film that his mind is not completely focused on the commitment to kill a bull. And I also felt that as a director, Borja was not born to do this, and he kind of knew it.”

The film includes scenes of Borja and his brother rehearsing using simulated bulls’ heads mounted on wheeled frames, witnessed by their grandfather.

It also follows Borja in other settings – spending time with friends and wearing traditional bullfighting costumes.

However, the challenge in putting Borja’s own story front and center is that, like many boys his age, he is not always inclined to share his feelings.

“In making the film, I tried to capture what Borja was thinking without him saying it,” says De Reyes, “because I didn’t feel like he would ever tell anyone that he would don’t do this – but you can tell.

“So trying to capture that cinematically, saying he started having these thoughts without any voiceover or interviews, was really difficult.”

She credited her cinematographer for capturing Borja’s emotions through facial expressions and body language. “You start to realize he has a lot going on, just by looking at him.”

Although legal in Spain, many individual municipalities have outlawed bullfighting. It also occasionally occurs in parts of Portugal, Southern France, Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru.

But it has been made illegal in many countries, including the UK, or is in the process of being outlawed. The ban in Colombia is being gradually lifted and will take full effect in 2027.

De Reyes knows that some people may hear about the bullfighting element in the film and not want to watch it, but she says the message of this documentary is that “children should be allowed to explore and be whoever they want to be.” “.

“And I also hope it will expand [viewers’] mind, don’t immediately judge someone who is doing something they consider bad, but give someone a second chance and explain the reasons behind certain people’s choices.

“Not everyone has the privilege of choosing a career path or going to university, even if they are white and in Europe. I hope people do not feel uncomfortable with the word bullfighting or the world around them. around it.”

The request added that there is unlikely to be much of a future for bullfighting, even for those who continue to pursue it as a career.

“The reality is this is an industry in decline,” she said. “It’s in decline, it doesn’t exist anymore.

“Those who want to keep the tradition say it’s huge, but most of the bullfighters are unemployed. Things are not the same anymore and that’s evident in the film.”

The Boy and the Light Suit screens at Sheffield DocFest on Sunday, before playing other film festivals in the near future. Aconite Productions hopes to distribute it in the UK in due course.