Amores Perros

Amores Perros (2000) joins three separate stories in Mexico City through a car crash. First: Octavio is in love with his brother's wife and needs money to run; he starts fighting his dog. Second: a successful magazine editor leaves his wife to live with a famous model, and she is injured in the crash and loses her leg. Third: a former guerrilla living as a contract killer, watching from a distance the daughter he abandoned. What binds them is the crash and the dogs. There is a dog in each part and each one shows what its owner is. It is Iñárritu's first film. Guillermo Arriaga wrote it; the two went on to make 21 Grams and Babel before falling out. The image is deliberately rough: handheld, heavy grain, desaturated colour. Rodrigo Prieto shot it. The dog fighting scenes caused argument on release and there were claims that animals had been harmed. The production stated that a veterinarian had supervised throughout and that no animal was injured, and a statement to that effect was added to the film. The argument ran for years. It won the grand prize of Critics' Week at Cannes and was nominated for the foreign language film Oscar. It was Gael García Bernal's first major film. It is counted among the films that began Mexican cinema's international rise. It runs 154 minutes. Good for: multi strand narrative, Latin American cinema, and hard drama. Less good for: the dog fighting scenes are very difficult and the film is merciless throughout.