'Cartel Land' shows good and bad of vigilantes in Mexico, US
New York-based director Matthew Heineman gained unprecedented access to gun-toting vigilantes in Michoacan, where those "self-defense" forces eventually drove the pseudo-religious Knights Templar cartel out of much of the western state, but wound up being infiltrated by former cartel gunmen, rival cartels and new gangs.
Led by farmers, orchard owners and small-town doctors, the movement captured the imagination of Mexicans fed up with drug violence and a government that in parts of the country is too corrupt or too inept to fight back.
Heineman paired the story of Michoacan with the tale of vigilantes north of the border: war veteran Tim "Nailer" Foley and his Arizona Border Recon that patrols areas of that state looking for migrants but, more importantly, drug smugglers.
Heineman originally planned only to tell the story of American vigilantes, he said, but after hearing about Michoacan, "the film took a complete shift and became this parallel story about citizens on both sides of the border fighting back against the cartels."