El sicario: Room 164

Limited means, maximum effect. The stunning story of El Sicario, a hitman for organised crime in Ciudad Juárez, the murder capital of the world. He tells all: how, what, where, who and why. In a hotel room, with a bag over his head, because if they find him, he’s dead.

In room 164 of a grubby hotel near the Mexican-American border, a huge guy dressed in black puts a black cloth over his head to make him unrecognisable. Then he sits down and starts talking about the life he has lived.

For 20 years the man worked for a Mexican drugs baron. He provides detailed descriptions of how he kidnapped people, how he made them talk and how thoroughly corrupt the Mexican and American authorities are. In the meantime, he uses a black marker to make sketches in a notepad, page after page. There is not much more to be seen in the documentary El Sicario Room 164 – and yet the terrifying story gets under your skin.

Gianfranco Rosi (directing, camera and production) based the hazardous undertaking El Sicario (‘ the hit man’) on an article by the American investigative journalist Charles Bowden. In the titles, it is stated that the ‘sicario’ fled in 2007 from the Mexican murder capital Ciudad Juárez and that since then a reward of $250,000 has been offered for him. —IFFR