Amores Perros

Amores Perros’s frenzied beginnings are tantamount to the film’s narrative concerns as a whole, seemingly unconcerned with building upon his audience’s expectations Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu propels us straight into the action as two vehicles career through the humid streets of Mexico City.

Inside car number one we find two heated young men and an apparently soon to be dead Rottweiler; erratic camera work, fast editing and the scream of car tyres adds to our confusion as we attempt to fathom what is unfolding before us. Had we been allowed the time to think we may have foreseen the inevitable; soon the car ploughs into another vehicle as the driver, Octavio, disregards an intersection in a bid to escape the automatic weapons wielded by his pursuers. The horrific traffic accident that follows becomes the axis that is Amores Perros, the point of reference from which three wholly individual yet occasionally entwined stories will hinge.

Amores Perros and Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction are often mentioned in the same breath – true, both films favour a non-linear approach to story-telling, yet this is were comparisons end. If Tarantino’s film is an ode to the marvels of cinema, flashy dialogue and stylised violence; then Amores Perros – a tale that spans the social spectrum of Mexico City – is one of life, love, the human condition and dogs.

Story one, “Octavio and Susana”, precedes the crash. Octavio, a poor working-class youth living in Mexico City’s slums finds himself falling in love with his abusive brother’s wife, Susana. The film backtracks showing how Octavio attempts to amass enough savings to escape his situation, fleeing to pastures greener with his brother’s wife. The backdrop to this first parable is Mexico City’s underground dog-fighting circuit – Octavio’s treasured fighting dog Cofi being his ticket to better things. Unfortunately, when Cofi wins one fight too many he is shot, triggering the events that see the pair tailed through the heart of Mexico City.

Story two, “Daniel and Valeria”, follows in the immediate wake of the crash. We learn that travelling in the other car was nationally celebrated supermodel Valeria and her lapdog Ritchie. Valeria, the new face of Enchant Perfume, has recently moved into a luxury apartment with lover Daniel, a middle-aged fashion mag editor who has left his wife and small children to be with the young model. Valeria’s leg is severely injured in the accident and things quickly go from bad to worse as the beloved Ritchie disappears through the floorboards into the rat- infested bowels of the apartment; his pitiful scraping and whining seeming somewhat metaphoric as resentment sets in and the relationship slowly crumbles.

The final episode relays the tragedy of El Chivo and the lost love of his daughter Maru. El Chivo’s story takes place before, during and after the accident; he witnesses the crash and occasionally flits in and out of the previous two chapters. An enigmatic figure whose role as political assassin is cloaked by his life as a vagabond, El Chivo forfeited his family for his once revolutionary ideals. Haunted by a life that could have been, his companions are now the other stray dogs that roam the streets of Mexico City.

Amores Perros is a beautiful film; though at times fast-paced and rich in style, character and atmosphere, it never sacrifices it’s depth nor emotional core. A rather deserved Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee, and Best Foreign Language BAFTA recipient, Amores Perros is a brilliant production – the sort of foreign language picture that causes you to forget you are reading subtitles.

d.y.brunwin