The movie travels backwards and forwards in time, exploring the impact of the collision

The director has described the capital as "an anthropological experiment" and "a baroque and complex mosaic" - quotes that could also be used to describe his audacious three-hour opus.

Three lives collide when teenager Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal), on the run from some local hoodlums, smashes into another car driven by supermodel Valeria (Goya Toledo).

The incident has far-reaching consequences for both its victims, but it also impacts on the life of a passer-by (Emilio Echevarria), an ex-communist guerrilla turned derelict who now works as a freelance assassin.

The movie then travels forwards and backwards in time to see how these individuals came to be at that intersection on that fateful day, and what lessons they draw - if any - from their life-shattering experience.

Shockingly violent and darkly comic by turns, the Oscar-nominated Amores Perros ("Love's a Bitch") doesn't quite live up to the grandeur of its conception.

But it's still a remarkable debut from former DJ Inarritu that more than justifies the dozens of awards it has picked up around the globe.

If there is a weakness, it is the way the director sacrifices coherence for flashy visuals, snappy editing and other tools of the pop video trade.

That said, you will be hard pressed to find a more eye-catching or provocative motion picture this year.

Amores Perros is on general release from Friday 18 May