Film about Manolete will be shown in February

He was one of Spain's most revered matadors, a hero who is still remembered even today by devotees of bullfighting.

Now the passionate and tragic affair between the matador and his unconventional lover has been made into a film starring Adrien Brody and Penelope Cruz – to the fury of Spain's growing lobby of anti-bullfighting campaigners, who say the glamour of Hollywood stars glorifies a cruel sport.

The makers of Manolete, a Spanish-British production which will be shown in British cinemas early next year, insist that neither of its stars were showing approval of bullfighting by taking part in the film and were simply attracted to the roles by a strong story.

But animal rights campaigners have been launching attacks on the pair, especially Miss Cruz who they had thought was on their side.

In the film she plays Lupe Sino, the lover of Manuel Sanchez – the matador known as Manolete – who was famed as much for his tempestuous love life as for his prowess in dispatching bulls in the ring.

Mr Brody, the American star of The Pianist and King Kong, had to train with two of Spain's leading matadors to play Manolete, whose magic in the bullring made him one of the great heroes of 1940s Spain.

He died at the age of 30 in 1947, at the peak of his fame, after he was gored. Sino, who watched his last performance, was prevented from visiting him as he lay dying. Officials may have kept her from him because of her political views, although the misogyny of bullfighting may have played a role and so may the view that she was a loose woman who would have inherited his fortune if they had wed on his deathbed.

Manolete was said by aficionados to have elevated bullfighting to an almost spiritual plane. He caused scandal by living in sin with Sino, a shocking breach of social mores in Franco's National Catholic state which was only tolerated because of his fame.

The film's Spanish producer Andres Vicente Gomez, of Lolafilms, insisted that the film would not glamourise bullfighting.

“This is a film about a love story. There is no blood shown. There is one scene involving a bullfight but it does not show the animal suffering. In no way did bulls suffer for this film,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.

He said the involvement of Cruz and Brody in the film did not mean they supported bullfighting and pointed out that Ms Cruz has said in the past that she opposed it. He drew a parallel with Million Dollar Baby, in which Hilary Swank played the role of a woman boxer because she liked the role, not because she approved of boxing.

“Penelope took the role because she thinks it will be a good film,” Mr Gomez said.

Jordi Casamitjana, of CAS International, Europe's largest anti-bullfighting organisation, said: “The film makes the matador the good guy and Franco and the Fascists the bad guys, so inevitably it will make a hero out of a man who tortures animals for a living.

“Even if we do not see any bulls suffering, it will make bullfighting seem a good thing.”

Ms Cruz has been warmly praised by pro-bullfighters in Spain who said she has signalled her approval for “la fiesta nacional” by acting in Manolete.

But the American animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claimed the actress had signed a petition calling for the running of the bulls festival in Pamplona to be banned.

Ms Cruz later denied she had given her permission for her name to be used on its petition. It emerged that her father was a fan of San Fermin, the festival made famous by Ernest Hemingway in his novel The Sun Also Rises, an eulogy to bullfighting.

The anti-bullfighting lobby in Spain is becoming bolder in staging radical protests. This year, protestors started disrupting bullfights for the first time by running inside the ring as the action was under way, holding banners calling for its abolition.

Before, protestors had prefered to stay outside of the bullrings, reasoning that to pay for a ticket to get in would be tantamount to supporting the spectacle.

A Gallup survey in 2006 found 72 per cent of Spaniards had no interest in bullfighting.

The film also managed to upset traditional supporters of bullfighting who were angered that one of their idols has been played by a foreigner.

Patricia Navarro, bullfighting correspondent for La Razon newspaper, said it was a shame that the director had not been able to find a Spanish actor. “For a foreigner to understand bullfighting will be a great challenge,” she added.

The release of Manolete, which was shot in 2005, has been delayed because filming went way over budget, costing EUROS 21m instead of the original budget of EUROS 11 million.