Amores Perros (2000)

Alejandro González Iñárritu's debut opens mid chase, with a shot dog bleeding on the back seat, and the crash that ends it ties together three Mexico City lives that would never otherwise touch: a young man who fights his brother's dog for money, a Spanish model, and a scruffy hitman who lives with a pack of strays. It won the Critics' Week prize at Cannes and has the raw energy of a director with everything to prove. Know two things before you start: it runs over two and a half hours, and the dogfights are staged convincingly enough to upset, though the director says no dogs were harmed.