Synopsis
In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as "El Doctor," shepherds a citizen uprising against the Knights Templar, the violent drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years. Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley—a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley—Tim "Nailer" Foley, an American veteran, heads a small paramilitary group called Arizona Border Recon, whose goal is to halt Mexico’s drug wars from seeping across our border.
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Cast
- Robert HetrickHimself
- José Manuel Mireles ValverdeHimself
- Tim Nailer FoleySelf (as Tim 'Nailer' Foley)
- Paco ValencianoSelf - Autodefensas Comandante
- ChanequeSelf - drug cartel thug
- CaballoSelf - drug cartel thug
- Enrique Peña NietoSelf
- Ana ValenciaSelf - Manuel Mireles' wife
- Estanislao BeltráninSelf - spokesman, Autodefensas
- Janet FieldsSelf - Tim Foley's girlfriend
Recommendations
- 100
Village Voice
Cartel Land is interested in how idealism becomes corrupt. - 91
The Playlist
Heineman, in placing himself in such danger, has managed to create a remarkable and distinctive film that takes on a difficult issue that cannot be so conveniently remedied or ignored. - 90
The Hollywood Reporter
Filmmaker Heineman vaults us into a true heart of darkness. - 90
The Dissolve
Though Cartel Land isn’t interested in making fact-filled statements about the drug war, Heineman’s ingenious conceit gets at the difficulty ordinary people have in doing something about it. - 80
Screen Daily
Matthew Heineman does break the mold in Cartel Land and gets inside citizens movements – better known as vigilantes – which overturn the cartels’ monopoly on violence, for a while. - 75
The A.V. Club
Whatever one’s moral qualms regarding the Autodefensas—and Heineman makes a point of showing that Mireles, who’s married, has a penchant for using his celebrity to seduce much younger women—there’s no denying the engrossing nature of the footage shown here, or that the people involved are fighting for their own lives. - 70
Variety
There are no solutions posed; Cartel Land vividly conveys the sense that this cycle of violence can’t be stopped as long as anyone who tries to take charge (including, the film suggests, government forces in Mexico) is susceptible to corruption. - 63
Slant Magazine
A stunning work of war reportage nestled within a creaky study of ideological purity.
