STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
On the United States/Mexico Border, the Knights Templar drugs cartel plies its trade with ruthless determination, and terrorizes the residents of the villages and towns where it operates. In this lawless little corner of the world, where the police, army and government are as corrupt as, and in league with, the villains, it has fallen on some local people to stand up and make a difference. Lead by a charismatic, mature local physician, the Autodefensas are an army with no legal sanction, but the support of the people who know the cause they are fighting, but gradually they are infiltrated by undesirables who set them on a path of corruption. Meanwhile, a separate group of American fighters, with uncomfortable views towards their Mexican neighbours, operate their own little army.
The 'cartel' phenomenon has been used many-a-times as a backdrop for your average action adventure, or crime thriller, but this is as close as you'll have come, probably ever, to getting up close and personal, and seeing what could be described as like a real life action film, with men in military fatigues spouting automatic weapons and prowling the outskirts of the desert in search of their prey, not to mention seeing men in car chases zooming in on those they are hunting. In this sense, Cartel Land takes the docu-drama concept and turns it on its head, delivering something quite unique. That said, on the expose front, it covers a lot of old ground that you would have already seen in any Ross Kemp/Channel 4 programme on telly, with some of the drug traffickers themselves appearing on camera only briefly, but just delivering the usual platitudes of how they live in poverty, and the real villains are those at the top.
What's never been seen before, is the frustration of those living in the midst of the violence and corruption, and their resignation to having to come together and form their own group to tackle the criminals, and eventually the disillusionment and regret when even they appear to turn into something bad. You really get the impression of a group of people who depend on each other, and have only each other to lean on in this world. But their situation is already quite well known, and they get a lot more screen time than the surprising emergence of some American protagonists, although their xenophobia and racism makes them a little tough to warm to.
By the end, it's lost it's narrative and sense of pace a little, but despite some faults, it's still an eye opening and daring work that deserves to be observed. ***
On the United States/Mexico Border, the Knights Templar drugs cartel plies its trade with ruthless determination, and terrorizes the residents of the villages and towns where it operates. In this lawless little corner of the world, where the police, army and government are as corrupt as, and in league with, the villains, it has fallen on some local people to stand up and make a difference. Lead by a charismatic, mature local physician, the Autodefensas are an army with no legal sanction, but the support of the people who know the cause they are fighting, but gradually they are infiltrated by undesirables who set them on a path of corruption. Meanwhile, a separate group of American fighters, with uncomfortable views towards their Mexican neighbours, operate their own little army.
The 'cartel' phenomenon has been used many-a-times as a backdrop for your average action adventure, or crime thriller, but this is as close as you'll have come, probably ever, to getting up close and personal, and seeing what could be described as like a real life action film, with men in military fatigues spouting automatic weapons and prowling the outskirts of the desert in search of their prey, not to mention seeing men in car chases zooming in on those they are hunting. In this sense, Cartel Land takes the docu-drama concept and turns it on its head, delivering something quite unique. That said, on the expose front, it covers a lot of old ground that you would have already seen in any Ross Kemp/Channel 4 programme on telly, with some of the drug traffickers themselves appearing on camera only briefly, but just delivering the usual platitudes of how they live in poverty, and the real villains are those at the top.
What's never been seen before, is the frustration of those living in the midst of the violence and corruption, and their resignation to having to come together and form their own group to tackle the criminals, and eventually the disillusionment and regret when even they appear to turn into something bad. You really get the impression of a group of people who depend on each other, and have only each other to lean on in this world. But their situation is already quite well known, and they get a lot more screen time than the surprising emergence of some American protagonists, although their xenophobia and racism makes them a little tough to warm to.
By the end, it's lost it's narrative and sense of pace a little, but despite some faults, it's still an eye opening and daring work that deserves to be observed. ***