Hot Docs

Sicarios, or hitmen, kill and torture for a living. Silence has been their only code—until now. Disguising his face with a black hood, a notorious Mexican assassin unlocks the door to Room 164, a nondescript motel room along a drug highway linking Mexico and the United States. He’s been here before: it’s the scene of just one of the many kidnapping and torture jobs he executed during a lethal 20-year career. Inspired by the article “The sicario: A Juárez hit man speaks” written by award-winning journalist Charles Bowden, filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi brings the killer in front of the camera for a first-person confession. With a pen and empty notebook, the hitman unburdens himself, sketching out the sadistic methods of his trade and the chilling government and police corruption that drive the world’s most dangerous drug cartels. - Myrocia Watamaniuk

Co-presented with Images Festival.