VLAFF is pleased to present the digitally restored copies of the first films of two of the most unique and talented filmmakers in the world, Mexican directors Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu. AMORES PERROS is the first film of G. Iñarritú, which premiered in 2000 at the Cannes Film Festival where it won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. AMORES PERROS also launched the career of Gael García Bernal.

AMORES PERROS
Mexico, 2000
Spanish with English subtitles | 153 min 
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Tuesday, July 31
9 PM 
The Cinematheque, 
1131 Howe Street (btw Helmcken & Davie)

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Amores perros is the first instalment in G. Iñárritu’s “Trilogy of Death,” which continues with 21 Grams (2003) and Babel (2006). The film is an example of “hyperlink cinema” – that is to say, it consists of multiple, disparate storylines that converge and collide at some place and point of time. Here, we find a triptych of narratives – (1) Octavio and Susana, (2) Daniel and Valeria, and (3) El Chivo and Maru – that are connected through the opening scene of a horrific car accident and also by canine motifs that crop up throughout the film.

Brilliantly directed, written, photographed and acted, this is first-rate filmmaking, horrific and tender, raw and lyrical. Trust us, you need to see this. – Kim Newman, Empire

Ciudad de México en el amanecer de un nuevo siglo. Un terrible accidente automovilístico se convierte en el punto de encuentro de tres “amores perros.” Octavio, un joven adolescente enamorado de su cuñada, ha transformado a su perro “Cofi” en una mortífera arma con la que desea escapar de su miseria amorosa. Valeria, una hermosa modelo, ve truncada su carrera y su nueva vida al lado de Daniel, mientras su pequeño perro “Richi” queda atrapado, como ella, en los estrechos límites de su departamento. Por su parte el taciturno Chivo, un ex-guerrillero que no puede acercarse a la hija que algún día abandonó, sublima su necesidad de amor recogiendo perros en la calle. Ninguno de ellos volverá a ser el mismo después del accidente. Todos, incluyendo a los perros, encontrarán un destino muy distinto al que algún día imaginaron.