Any intimate, detailed documentary about what goes on during a bullfight is going to chase away probably two thirds of the populace in this day and age. Those who avoid it have a point.

“Afternoons of Solitude,” which follows pouty and popular young bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey through fourteen corridas over three years, doesn’t pull any punches or spare us the blood. We see the jabs of the picas (lance piercings delivered on horseback) and banderillas (darts) or the stabs from the estoque (sword) and belated coup de grace from a descabello (dagger).

Only the sword is wielded by the muleta (cape) waving bullfighter. He has a whole costumed and armed team on his side as he wades through an afternoon’s fights.

A tight-jacket/tight-pants “suit of light” dandy with a sense of theater — strutting, posturing for the crowd, eyes bugging out as he regards his foes (more than one bull) for the day — he is also a man with a high tolerance for blood. Early on, we see our torero undressing after a fight, a white suit ruined by the gruesome day’s work.

But director Alberto Serra’s film (“Tardes de soledad” in Spanish) reminds us that a high tolerance for pain is also part of that deal toreadors make with the Devil. Roca Rey compulsively crosses himself at several points as he preps to go into the ring each afternoon, and with good reason. All those other figures in the bullfight’s dance of death, armed and on foot or on horseback — a bull wounded, taunted and weakened from a long duel — and we still see Roca Rey flipped and mauled. We hear of injuries that are slow to heal.

And the crowds in Spain? They know their bloodsport. If he’s not up to snuff, or fails to kill the bull with that one elegant final stab, the whistles and jeers from the arena let him know it.

No wonder Roca Rey curses them almost as much as he curses the bulls. He professes respect for the animals, but yes, he’s aware of how much his “team” protects him.

“Bull, you spared me,” he mutters at the end of one fight that’s injured him. We know better.

“You should have been carried out,” one of his in-ring banderillos says afterward (in Spanish with English subtitles). “Today, we skirted tragedy!”

Serra, who made the fictional features “Pacifiction” and “The Death of Louis XIV,” mikes up Roca Rey and follows him through the rituals of a day’s fight. We see the elaborate costuming — beginning with a see through body sock, with layers piled over it — the van ride to the venue, a rock star and his entourage of aides in and out of the ring.

And in the fight, we hear the instructions, directions and “hype” of those assisting him in his mismatched duel with a bull.

“You’ve got BALLS,” is a favorite encouragement. “Shut them UP” is shouted when they sense the crowd turning on him.

The rides to the arena are quiet and sweaty. This is deadly dangerous work, even if bullfighters don’t often die in the ring any more. The rides back to a hotel are full of reassurances, ego-stroking and the like.

“Did I overdo it?”

“You’re a beast, a cut above the rest!”

“Solitude” is shot in a tight frame, a documentary that narrows its focus, stripping much of the pageantry and at least some of the ritual of this anicent bloodsport that much of the world condemns these days. Serra dares to show us that a bull’s death after a cruel “contest” is a sad and pathetic thing. Hemingway and those still defending bullfighting can suck it with their “noble beast” and manliness of the toreros spin.

But if you’ve ever been curious, without wanting to endure a drawn-out day-long slaughter by the world’s best-dressed and best-compensated butchers, “Afternoons of Solitude” will put you in that ring with a celebrated torero. We see him practice his bloody art, sizing up the bull, always calculating the risks, pausing to pose, but also following the shouts of direction as his team sets the animal up for him to deliver a “beautiful” death.

Rating: unrated, graphic violence, animal cruelty, profanity

Cast: Andrés Roca Rey, with Manuel Lara, Francisco Manuel Durán,
Antonio Gutiérrez, Roberto Domínguez and Francisco Gómez

Credits: Scripted and directed by Alberto Serra. A Grasshopper Film release

Running time: 2:05