Bullfighting: Spanish child grapples with tradition in The Boy and the Suit of Lights

A new documentary follows a boy living in a small town in Spain, whose family expects him to become a professional bullfighter.

It may sound like an unusual career choice in an era where bullfighting is considered a cruel and outdated sport, primarily due to issues of animal welfare.

Social attitudes in some parts of Castellón, however, are not quite as progressive as those in nearby Valencia and Barcelona, and the boy’s grandfather, unbothered by the controversy surrounding bullfighting, encourages his grandson to pursue it.

A new documentary, The Boy and the Suit of Lights, which has just premiered at the Sheffield Documentary Festival, follows the child, Borja, and the relationship with his grandfather, Matias, over several years.

Director Inma De Reyes, who is from Castellón, grew up with the bullring in the centre of her hometown and saw coverage of bullfights on television, but didn’t realise her birthplace was considered Spain’s bullfighting capital.

“It’s a small city where time hasn’t passed, people have very traditional jobs, they work in fishing, the orange fields, or bullfighting, and every so often there would be a traditional celebration which is religious.

“So I see my hometown as where nothing ever changes. 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 coming back and making a film there, that’s how I started to look more in depth at how families are putting values onto children and the children’s personalities are being shaped.”

When de Reyes began looking into the subject for a documentary, her mother sent her local newspaper articles highlighting the bullfighting traditions, and the film-maker was opened up to a world she “hadn’t taken an interest” in previously.

“My granddad owned books and posters about bullfighting, but I did think that was generations ago,” de Reyes recalls. “I didn’t know how big the culture was.”

A friend of the Spanish director, who is now based in Edinburgh, connected her to a bullfighting school, through which she ultimately met Borja.