Described, by Variety, as a “pared-down portrait of a repentant assassin,” Gianfranco Rosi's “El Sicario, Room 164” is a new documentary based on a recent Harper's article (“The Sicario: A Juárez Hit Man Speaks”) by Charles Bowden.
“Dealing with the confessions of a Ciudad Juárez hit man, there’s something theatrical about Rosi’s documentary from the start: the killer, back to the camera, dons a mask and turns to face his audience, soon proving himself to be a master raconteur,” Olaf Moller wrote about the film in Film Comment. “El Sicario, Room 164’s description of Mexico’s body politic as a cadaver seething with maggots has the ring of truth and is confirmed every day by the news.”
Filmmaker Rosi (pictured above at the Walter Reade Theater) was at the Film Society yesterday with Bowden, author of the book, “Murder City: Cuidad Juarez and the Global Economy” as the film screened at the Film Comment Selects series.
Photo courtesy Brad Balfour.
