''Cartel Land'' is a 2015 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by

Matthew Heineman Matthew Heineman is an American filmmaker. The Sundance Film Festival called Heineman "one of the most talented and exciting documentary filmmakers working today", while Anne Thompson of ''Indiewire'' wrote that Heineman is a "respected and gif ...

about the Mexican Drug War, especially

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a person who ...

groups fighting Mexican

drug cartel A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when th ...

s. The film focuses on Tim "Nailer" Foley, the leader of Arizona Border Recon, and Dr. José Mireles, a Michoacán-based physician who leads the Autodefensas. The film was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosoph ...

in 2016.

Synopsis

The film focuses on two vigilante groups who fight drug cartels from different sides of the

United States–Mexico border United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

. In Mexico, the film focuses on José Manuel Mireles Valverde, known locally as "El Doctor". Mireles becomes fed up with the local

Knights Templar Cartel The Knights Templar Cartel (Spanish: ''Los Caballeros Templarios'') was a Mexican criminal organization originally composed of the remnants of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel based in the Mexican State of Michoacán. The Knights Templar Ca ...

. He gathers a group of citizens from the state of Michoacán and leads an uprising, driving the cartel out of the region. In the US, the film follows an American veteran named Tim "Nailer" Foley, who is forming a small paramilitary group called the Arizona Border Recon. His goal is to stop the same Mexican cartel from conducting business in the US.

Production

Heineman got the idea for the film after reading about Arizona Border Recon in an article in ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' magazine, and then his father sent him a ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' article about José Manuel Mireles and the Autodefensas.The Missing Story of the Drug War , The New Yorker
/ref> "The minute I read that article, I knew I wanted to create a parallel story of vigilantes on both sides of the border. I wanted to know what happens when government institutions fail and citizens feel like they have to take the law into their own hands." The film was shot in Michoacán, southwest

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. Heineman was inspired by '' The Square'' in the making of the film.

Reception

''Cartel Land'' received very positive reviews from critics.

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

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reports an 90% rating based on 99 reviews, and an average rating of 7.60/10. The site's consensus states: "Raw, brutal, and bitter, ''Cartel Land'' offers a ground-level look at vigilante efforts to thwart organized crime at the Mexican–American border." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a 76 out of 100 rating based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". ''Cartel Land'' appeared on over twenty critics' lists for best documentary and best film of 2015. It was listed as the #1 documentary of 2015 by

Indiewire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...

's ''

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'' and by ''

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'', which also named Heineman as the best new filmmaker of the year. On December 1, the film was selected as one of 15 shortlisted for the

. Heineman won the Best Director Award and Special Jury Award for Cinematography for the film in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the

2015 Sundance Film Festival The 2015 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 22 to February 1, 2015. '' What Happened, Miss Simone?'', a biographical documentary film about American singer Nina Simone, opened the festival. Comedy-drama film '' Grandma'', directed by ...

, where the documentary premiered. He was presented the award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary by the

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merge ...

, as well as the 2015 Courage Under Fire Award for the film by the International Documentary Association. The film was also nominated for Best Documentary at the

69th British Academy Film Awards The 69th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, were held on 14 February 2016 at the Royal Opera House in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2015. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Telev ...

and for the

at the

88th Academy Awards The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015 and took place on February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, 5:30 p.m. PST. Dur ...

. The film received the 2015 Documentary Film Award from the George Polk Awards in Journalism. On February 12, 2015, Orchard Films acquired the rights to the film. Cartel Land was released theatrically in the summer of 2015 and aired on A&E on January 4, 2016.

Awards and nominations

References

External links