(103 mins)
A startling offering, this doc contrasts the effects of the drug war at its epicentre in Ciudad Juárez with a new and highly popular form of music that lionizes the narcos as brave and romantic outlaws. The film travels throughout northern Mexico to explore the culture in which the narcos are rooted – mausoleums for the fallen drug bosses larger than most people’s houses, gangsters commissioning their favourite singers to write a song about them to ensure an heroic reputation. Meanwhile the bodies pile up on the streets and most of those affected shake their heads in disbelief. The director, journalist Shaul Schwartz from across the US border in El Paso, made the trip many times across the river to Juárez, never staying too long for fear of his life. There are startling scenes here – not just of the victims hunted down for some imagined slight or threat but also of audiences in Los Angeles night clubs so familiar with narco ballads that they can sing along to the lyrics. In the background there always lurks the power and corruption that underpins both narco culture and the futile war on drugs that dances with it.
