Amores Perros

Aroview: Bursting forth with passion, cinematic mettle and pungent local flavours, this debut feature, a triptych of stories set in polyglot Mexico City, is the most celebrated film to emerge from Mexico in many years.

The tales, centred around a young dogfighter, an emotionally-blocked supermodel and an aging regretful ex-guerilla, literally collide in the film’s centrepiece car-crash, though are more subtly linked by the characters' relationship to their dogs – an index of soiled humanity. Most obviously taking inspiration from the likes of Tarantino and Wong Kar Wai, this nonetheless burns with its own unique frisson of ‘death in the afternoon’ atmosphere, blood-drenched violence, emotive acting and fragments of elegiac calm. Note: Dog-lovers Beware!

NZ International Film Festival 2001