Amores Perros - Love's A Bitch - won plaudits and prizes when it was premiered at Cannes in May, and it will be screened in full at the festival next month despite it being highly unlikely to be passed by the British film censor for general showing. Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's debut has been called a "Pulp Fiction for grown-ups", weaving together three violent and tragic stories and with dogs as the common element.
The first and most powerful strand is that of an illegal dog fighting den in Mexico City in which pit bull terriers, alsatians and rottweilers fight to the death.
Jose Maria Ribo, director of the Cannes Critics' Week, where the film won the main prize, described the film as a "remarkable, important movie which should be seen despite what people think of the subject matter". He said the dogs wore special plastic muzzles during the fighting scenes that stopped their jaws snapping shut; animals that appeared to die had in fact been drugged.
Even so, the British board of film classification is unlikely to allow the film to be shown without extensive cuts, which its defenders claim would neuter its visceral power.
A spokeswoman for the board, Sue Clarke, said: "Baiting animals is a no-no as far as we are concerned, no matter how good the film is.
"The regulations are very clear, even if it is proved that that the animals did not suffer. We had a similar case a few years ago with a Chinese film about cock fighting, where the cocks wore rubber spurs so they would not injure themselves. Anything which involves goading or cruelty to animals is unacceptable. "Context is no defence."
The RSPCA recently launched an anti-dog fighting campaign, offering rewards for the arrest of baiters. A spokeswoman said: "We are very concerned about this film. Any film, especially an award winning one, which might imply that these practices are acceptable, has to be condemned. We are also worried about how it was shot. Even if these plastic muzzles were used, the dogs must have been goaded into attacking each other."
Guardian critic Jonathan Romney described the film as the "most exciting piece of pure narrative shown at Cannes this year", but no British distributor has picked it up as yet, and Ms Clarke said that it had not been submitted for classification.
Lizzie Francke, director of the Edinburgh fortnight, Britain's leading film festival, said: "This is an extraordinary film, and it would be a crime if it was not seen in Britain. No animals were harmed. I would not dream of showing it if I knew they had been. I have seen a more powerful film about the destruction people wreak on each other than this. I found myself crying at several scenes. I'd much rather make a stand for this film than many others which have attracted similar controversies." She hoped a distributor would be brave enough to pick up the film.
Another highlight of the festival, which starts on August 13, is the premiere of Terence Davies' The House Of Mirth, shot in Glasgow and starring Gillian Anderson, omitted for this year's Cannes.
Stephen Daldry's The Dancer, a hit at Cannes, will be shown, though it has been renamed Billy Elliot to distinguish it from Lars Von Trier' Dancer In The Dark, which won the Palme D'Or at Cannes and will also will be shown at Edinburgh. In The Mood For Love, from the Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai, and loosely based on Brief Encounter, will get its British premiere.
