Watch ‘Cartel Land’ On Netflix Now Before It Wins The Oscar For Best Documentary

I know what you’re thinking: no way you’re watching a war documentary this weekend. OK, fine, totally understandable. War documentaries are typically depressing and often unwanted fuel for fire in your household, especially if you watch with someone who’s on the opposite end of the political spectrum as yourself. Been there! But just hear this one out: You need to see Cartel Land and you need to watch it now, before it rocks this Academy Awards season.

While musical documentaries Amy and Netflix’s What Happened, Miss Simone? are racing to the finish line for Oscar gold, Cartel Land is waiting on the sidelines, much like its subjects, potentially gaining the momentum it needs to swoop in a nab the prize for Best Documentary Feature. But fancy statuettes aside, Cartel Land is so much more than an award-worthy account — it’s a revolution.

Executive produced by Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) and filmed by Matthew Heineman, Cartel Land is an immersive and, at times, unbelievable journey south of the border where two vigilante militia groups — representing both Mexico and the United States — battle for territory against the area’s most violent drug cartels. Sick and tired of being caught in the middle of merciless violence, these citizen soldiers are armed and ready to fight for what they believe in — but whether it’s for good or evil is where things get murky.

Camera in-hand, Heineman (who must have a death wish, I swear) finds himself on all sides of the battlefront. Spending time with the Arizona Border Recon, a citizen-led crusade that captures and returns those who cross the U.S.-Mexico border, the director spotlights a group of Americans who believe they are doing God’s work. Travel further south to Michoacán, Mexico where Heineman parks his camera in the middle of an outdoor meth lab and watches crystal cookers proclaim they’ll stop “when God tells them to.” It should be noted, however, that an American father and son taught them how to cook.

Flash forward to Heineman’s days and sleepless nights with The Autodefensas, a Mexico-based civilian-led vigilante group who, like the Arizona Border Recon, proclaim the right to protect their people in the wake of a corrupt and absentee government. But what happens when the vigilante groups start to become as violent as the cartels they’re fighting? Heineman lets those directly involved help you decide, removing himself from the equation entirely while bullets whiz over his lens.

Filmed in a way that makes you shake your head in disbelief, Cartel Land is as important as it is stunning. Yet, perhaps Heineman’s greatest achievement as a filmmaker isn’t his the fact he put himself in danger for the sake these stories be told; it’s that he shot and edited the footage in a way that completely silences his voice: letting his subjects carry the narrative in their own words. If an unbiased war documentary seems like a notion too good to be true, I assure you to see for yourself.

[Stream Cartel Land on Netflix]

Photos: Everett Collection