Men without women

In a dimly lit Madrid office, a weary man named Manuel steps in, his suitcase heavy with more than just clothes. He meets the diminutive yet imposing Don Miguel Retana, a figure whose office is adorned with a taxidermied bull that carries the memory of Manuel's own brother's fatal encounter in the arena. Their conversation quickly reveals a world where the once‑glorious art of bullfighting has faded, leaving men like Manuel to bargain for a precarious place on the night schedule.

Retana offers Manuel a chance to return to the ring, but only as a substitute for younger, more marketable fighters, and the terms are blunt—barely enough to keep him afloat. The negotiation is tinged with a mixture of old pride, lingering grief, and the practical realities of a profession that now seems more business than spectacle. Listeners are drawn into the gritty atmosphere of post‑civil‑war Spain, feeling the weight of tradition, loss, and the desperate hope of a man clinging to his identity.