EL SICARIO, ROOM 164

A motel room in Ciudad Juárez, on the border between Mexico and the United States, room 164. In this room a man once held people captive, tortured and killed them; now he sits in front of the camera with a black cloth over his head and tells his story. For years he worked as a contract killer for a drug cartel, with hundreds of murders to his name, while at the same time building a career in the police force of the state of Chihuahua, trained, he says, with the help of the FBI. On a notepad he sketches out hierarchies, procedures, kidnappings. “El Sicario, Room 164” by Gianfranco Rosi, Italy/France 2010, consists of nothing but this testimony.

It is based on a piece of reporting by Charles Bowden published in Harper’s Magazine in 2009. Rosi dispenses with archive footage and reverse shots; the horror arises from the starkness of the setting and the precision with which an educated man describes his work. In Venice the film played in 2010 in the Orizzonti section, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2011.

Shown at the 2011 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2011 · Film Archive