Photo Courtesy of Icarus Films
‘I have used these hands to serve them, to torture and to kill people.’ His face covered with a black mesh hood, an anonymous Juárez hit man presents his huge hands to the camera, then takes up a notebook and marker pen and begins to illustrate his story.
Italian director Gianfranco Rosi’s minimalist documentary, El Sicario: Room 164, is the cinematic companion piece to American journalist Charles Bowden’s article The sicario: A Juárez hit man speaks (Harpers Magazine, 2009). It’s filmed in a motel room on the US/Mexico border; the same room the hit man once used to hold and torture his kidnap victims. In precise and chilling detail he recounts his recruitment to, involvement with and eventual defection from, the Juárez drug cartel he dedicated twenty years of his life to serving.
The term ‘sicario’ has its roots in Roman Palestine where a sect of Jewish Zealots, the Sicarii, used concealed daggers (sicae) to murder Romans and their supporters. Some biblical scholars believe Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, to have been one of them: the suffix ‘ote’, meaning ‘to belong to’. In contemporary Columbian usage ‘sicario’ refers to professional hit men, experts in kidnap, torture and execution.
The sicario was recruited by the Juárez cartel as a college student. They bought his way into the Chihuahua State Police academy where the training he received gave him all the skills he needed to become an operative for them. Whilst on the police payroll as a commander he was also an instrument for organized crime. He describes the role of a professional sicario with modest pride and draws schematics of the techniques he employed. At points he goes so far as to act out events, including ‘maintaining’ a kidnap victim in the motel bathroom.
Gianfranco Rosi’s technique is a clever one: a faceless talking head. Face obscured, focus is forced on the sicario’s hands and drawings. Denied eye contact viewers are also denied the opportunity to judge, although the minimalist treatment does nothing to lessen the impact of the grisly details divulged or the astounding scale of corruption.
Since becoming a fugitive a $250,000 contract has been taken out on his life. He knows it will never be revoked. This is both his confessional and an opportunity for going on record and it makes for intimate and compelling viewing.
Spanish with English subtitles, 80mins.
El Sicario: Room 164 was shown as part of the 2011 Leeds International Film Festival. It will be available on general release in December 2011.
For more information:
The official website for the Leeds International Film Festival is www.leedsfilm.com. The box office number is 0113 224 3801. The LIFF25 Box Office is located in The Carriageworks, located on Millennium Square, Leeds. The box office is open from 10am – 6pm Monday to Saturday and on Sundays when there is a performance at The Carriageworks. Advance tickets and passes can be purchased either online, by phone or in person.
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