Amores Perros
Screening: 24 March 2003
Mexico 1999 (subtitles)
153 minutes
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Leading players - Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo, Emilio Echevarría.
Synopsis
The stories of Octavio, Valeria and El Chivo are linked by the opening violent and breathtaking scenes leading to a car accident.The young, aimless Octavio (Bernal) lives in poverty and dreams of making big bucks by entering Cofi, the Rottweiler, in dog fights and also of escaping the city slums with his brother’s wife.
Valeria (Toledo) is a model and mistress whose pampered existence is changed forever when she is injured in the accident. She is confined to her flat where her life deteriorates into a nightmare involving the disappearance of her pet pooch.
El Chivo (Echevarría) is a witness to the accident and rescues the injured Cofi. He lives like a vagrant but is actually a hit man and his story reaches a chilling climax when the dog he has saved reverts to the nature that was bred into it. This forces him to face his own life choices - to live like a dog or a man.
* * * * * *
A bold, mature debut film from director González Iñárritu, which has won him the 26 awards in film festivals from Tokyo to Oslo, Edinburgh to Bogota, including the International Critics Week Grand Prize at Cannes 2000. It was also nominated for The Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2001.It should be mentioned that the simulated dog fights are so skilfully cut and edited that you will feel you have seen much more than you really have.
