Gaps Between Chapters: Albert Serra and Honour of the Knights

The article examines Albert Serra’s Honour of the Knights (Honor de cavalleria, 2006) and explores how cinema can portray the past as a vivid, immediately present experience, without relying on historical reconstruction or classical narrative. Drawing on concepts developed by Robert Bresson and discussed in an essay by Susan Sontag, the article focuses on Albert Serra’s “dramaturgy of presence”, in which plot and psychologisation give way to duration, the body, sound, light and landscape. Through an analysis of selected scenes, it demonstrates how long takes and the absence of conventional events make time perceptible, while the concrete bodies of non-professional actors acquire a distinct presence before the camera.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!