Narco Cultura

Shaul Schwarz's Narco Cultura (US, 2013) - An eye-opening examination of Mexico’s blood-soaked drug war and its unsettling pop-culture side effects, “Narco Cultura” is as overwhelming as it is absorbing. War photographer-turned-director Shaul Schwarz focuses on two very different individuals — crime-scene investigator Richi Soto in Juarez, Mexico, and musician Edgar Quintero in Los Angeles — to illuminate the reality and the fantasy of drug cartels’ impact on both sides of the border. If audiences reject the film’s topic as too unsavory or depressing to contend with, they’ll simply be proving one of the filmmaker’s key points: Despite the staggering statistics, not enough people are paying attention. 2013BERp, 2013SUN. RATING: 7