Juan Perros

Juan Perros lives with his pigs, his donkey Pinto and a pack of dogs next to a garbage dump in the desert of Coahuila in Mexico. It seems like a barren and hostile environment, but in the midst of the stinking trash, Juan still finds beauty, particularly in the flora and fauna around him. He refuses to believe in his own mortality: "I believe there are people who die, and other people who can't die. Because of their way of being they approach eternity," he says. In this debut by director Rodrigo Imaz, Juan is portrayed as a philosophical eccentric living outside our age and society. His humble, solitary existence is the result of a horrific near-death experience that entirely transformed his view of life. Not that Juan lives entirely in isolation: every so often, he makes the trip with his donkey to a nearby village to sell the scrap metal he collects, and to pick up meat scraps to feed his dogs. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)