Synopsis: In Mexico City, three lives collide, revealing the hounding side of human nature: Octavio is a young aimless loser who lives in a barrio and has an obsessive crush on his sister-in-law, Susana, who is married to Ramiro, an abusive hoodlum. Meanwhile, Daniel, a successful editor, has ditched his wife and children to live in a dream apartment with Valeria, a shallow and neurotic supermodel. On the other hand, El Chivo, a bitter ex con turned hitman, haunts the life of a pretty young girl with whom he has a secret relationship and gets a commission to kill a wealthy and philandering businessman. These lives and the fates of two dogs get inextricably entangled in the heart of ever-changing, ever violent Mexico City. An exciting thrilling story about redemption and the vulnerability and complexity of human experience. No film had ever portrayed the chaos of the world's largest and most populated city with such realism and crudity before. The circle is never closed: pain is also a path towards hope.

Behind the scenes: "There are three fundamental reasons why we wanted this film to be made. The first was the originality and strength of the script by Guillermo Arriaga. Set in a city of contrasts, all his characters are deeply human, embodiments of pain and hope. The second was the impressive storytelling ability, imagination and talent of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu as director, and his tenacity and leadership as producer in bringing together the best possible cast and crew to help him tell this story in its full dimension. The third is that we believe this film, from its conception, possesses all the necessary elements to communicate with worldwide audiences craving new dimensions in storytelling. As viewers may notice, we took great creative risks in shooting Amores Perros. All of us at Altavista Films are proud to be a means for developing and exhibiting the work of Mexico's finest talents."

"Why did I write Amores Perros? I think every play implies a position towards the world, in some ways it`s a declaration of principles.

In Love's A Bitch (Amores Perros) I wanted to write a script that didn't trivialise violence and death, that made the reader feel the tremendous weight of a murder, the frightful consequences of a car accident, the reasons behind betrayal, the tragic momentum of illicit love. A script that could convey the pain, confusion, sadness, joy, ruin and hope of life itself. A script that was as fiercely human as possible.

I wanted to write a script that was free from the disgusting tyranny of political correctness (which is a gross softening of human experience through an outdated and cowardly morality). A script in which the characters could descend into their own hell and, after bouncing fiercely between what's right and what's wrong, find the path towards a reconciliation with themselves. I wanted the characters to be contradictory, paradoxical, willing to live intensely and to pay the price for it: death, mutilation, jail, indifference"                    Guillermo Arriaga Jordan

"I don't know whether I managed to write the script I wanted, but it resulted in a movie of which I am very proud, " says Jordan. "Under the intense and committed direction of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the dedication and support of Altavista Films, and with the participation and complicity of many men and women I highly respect, Amores Perros is a film that exudes instinct, passion and a lot of humanity." 

From the time I read Guillermo Arriaga`s first draft (we worked on 36 drafts over three years) it moved, shook and disturbed me," says director Alejandro Gonzaiez Inarritu, "I could not only see and feel the characters, but I could smell them and feel something profoundly human for them. It was like they stepped out of the paper and stood before me, suffering, with perfectly organic dialogues. If I'm certain of anything it's that I didn't make this film with my intellect, but by sheer instinct and intuition. I know I didn't put my heart into it, rather my entrails and a piece of my liver.

I think everybody gave a piece of their lives to the project, there was always a very strange mystique around the set - a silence which sowed mixed feelings and reaped deafening emotions. It was never inspiration, just perspiration; there was no mercy, compassion or compromise, things are what they are, not what we want them to be.

I wanted to be a silent but proactive witness of real facts taking place before our eyes. It was something close to documenting a piece of reality, and maybe this is why the film is disturbing and exciting, because the worst we can see in it is ourselves. Sometimes refusing to accept our nature or going against it is also a part of this very nature.

In Love's A Bitch characters forget their divinity and dive deep into their animal nature in order to redeem and survive themselves, their decisions and consequences through pain, but always with great beauty, courage, dignity and hope. This is why these characters are likeable and endearing: they may be unfaithful but never disloyal.

After reading dozens of scripts, the profound and complex structure of Love's A Bitch, along with the fortunate and vital empathy that bonded me with Guillermo Arriaga, led me to know I had finally found a story that would allow me to exorcise my terrible fear of the ordinary human experience of day-to-day existence, which has perhaps been hidden behind the frivolous aesthetic of TV commercials.

I wanted to touch and to touch myself, to feel alive and make the characters and viewers alive. I wanted to strike, caress, entertain, move and provoke. I wanted to take the viewer up and down the extremes of a roller coaster ride, no breaks. I wanted to completely strip the characters naked before the camera without them feeling embarrassed, to find the perfect catharsis or the uncomfortable shame of the viewer watching him or herself.

With this regard, I think the actors and actresses` heartrending and incredible work in the film accomplished a lot more than I had imagined."

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