EL SICARIO – ROOM 164
2010, 84’
Director: Gianfranco Rosi
Countries: France, USA
Distributor: 21UNO FILM
Language: OV Spanish with Italian subtitles
The film tells the confession of a former assassin hired by Mexican drug traffickers who is responsible for hundreds of murders, an expert in torture and kidnapping, and a former head of the Chihuahua state police, who was trained by the FBI. Filmed in room 164 in a motel in Juárez, where executions were actually carried out, the documentary is a lengthy interview with a hitman who describes how the Mexican drug cartel operates on the U.S. border.
Based on the essay The Sicario by the writer and journalist Charles Bowden, published in Harper’s Magazine in 2009, El sicario – Room 164 transforms the documentary medium into a performance, and is one of Gianfranco Rosi’s most powerful, compelling, and significant films. Presented at the 2010 Venice Film Festival, it won the Fipresci Prize for best film in the “Orizzonti” section.
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