A "crazy and outdated" law may stop one of the most feted foreign films in years being released in Britain.
Amores Perros, roughly translated as Love's A Bitch, has made the first-time Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu the hottest property since Quentin Tarantino. The film has won plaudits and prizes all over the world - 24 in all since it cleared the board at the Critics' Week at Cannes last May. Last week it won an Oscar nomination for best foreign film.
But despite predictions that it could match its Oscar rival Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as a mainstream hit here, it is highly unlikely to be passed uncut by the censor because one of its three intertwining stories involves dog fighting.
An obscure British law dating from the 1930s has put the British board of film classification in the "impossible position" of having to decide whether the film's pivotal scene can be legally shown.
Stephen Frears, the British director of The Grifters and High Fidelity, who was bowled over by the film at last year's San Sebastian film festival, where he chaired the jury, claimed it would be a "national disgrace" if it is not released here.
"This is freshest, most forceful film I have seen in ages. This is what film-making is all about," he said. "The very short scene which I believe may cause problems in Britain, which really is crucial to the film, is nothing to the sort of violence we see inflicted on human beings routinely without a word of protest. This is a very humane film. "If a British law says we cannot see it, then it is crazy and outdated and should be changed."
The film has been snapped up by the major US distributor Lions Gate and is being shown in the rest of Europe without cuts. But the strict provisions of the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act, 1937, means British distributors have been very slow about picking it up despite its triumph at the Edinburgh and London film festivals.
What worries them is 21 seconds of footage in the first and most powerful story, which revolves around an illegal dog-fighting den in Mexico City.
Pit bull terriers, alsatians and rottweilers appear to fight to the death in a graphic demonstration of what the director calls the "bestial values" that have infected their owners. "The dog that is the tragic anti-hero of the film is a pet who fights for his owner out of love for him but which itself turns into a killer," he said, "just as his owner becomes a killer out of a thwarted love for his brother's wife. I am really worried about the film becoming known as a 'dog fighting film' because it is not.
"I think that without that scene, the film loses its impact on the soul. People say we should cut it, but without this moment the film has no meaning."
Mr Gonzalez Inarritu said that although the fight scene appeared to be bloody and barbarous, "the camera lies" and he went to great lengths to ensure the dogs did not do anything they did not want to do. "We used hand-held cameras to make it look a lot more dramatic. The dogs were just playing," he said. Sue Clarke, of the British board of film classification, said the film put them in an impossible position. "We are looking at the film very carefully. Our only problem is with one very short scene and the reason we are taking so long to decide is that we can see its importance to the film. Let's be very clear, it is not the board that is the obstacle here, it is the law, and the law says animals should not be goaded or in any way incited to fight."
The banned played on
Clockwork Orange (1971)
Stanley Kubrick's take on Anthony Burgess's novel about a gang of teenage "droogs" who beat up their victims to the strains of Beethoven. Kubrick withdrew the film in the UK after being spooked by alleged copycat attacks it was said to have inspired. It was released again after his death last year.
Salo, or The 120 Days Of Sodom (1975)
Paolo Pasolini's last film before he was murdered - in a manner eerily reminiscent of the brutal rapes and killings his film depicts - is hard for even the most shock-weary libertine to stomach. It was banned here until last year.
The Story Of O (1975)
This film about the sexual humiliation of a girl at the hands of a group of Parisian dilettantes became a cause célèbre when banned in the 1970s. The censor saw it as sadistic - its defenders as an indictment of cruelty. It finally passed uncut here last year.
The Exorcist (1974)
Banned on video after several women became hysterical at cinema screenings, believing they were possessed by the devil. The ban was lifted two years ago.
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Eisenstein's epic about the sailors who sparked the Russian revolution was banned in Britain until 1956 due to "its inspirational nature to the working classes".
The Driller Killer (1979)
The first of the "video nasties" had the film's liberal director Abel Ferarra taking out frustrations on all and sundry with a drill. It was given an 18 certificate two years ago.
Rock Around The Clock (1956)
A surreal example of the occasional British mania for knee-jerk bans. Eighty local councils banned the pretty harmless American film - given a U certificate by the BBFC - for fear that the music's "hypnotic negro beats" would inflame youth.
