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Exclusive: Watch a Clip From Modern-Day Vigilante Documentary Cartel Land

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North of the border in a rural area in Arizona lives a 55-year-old American man. Far south of the border, in the Michoacán region of Mexico, lives a Mexican man of the same age. Each one has embarked on a vigilante mission to protect his family and his country from violent drug cartels—the common enemy that both feel their governments have left them to fight on their own.

Matthew Heineman’s award-winning documentary Cartel Land begins and ends in a meth lab. Between those bookends, the film immerses viewers in a world of shoot-outs and torture, scenes so dark that even Heineman says he couldn’t have imagined them when he set out to make the film. They were “vivid places,” he says, “that I never had dreamed of and wasn’t necessarily prepared for.”

Heineman initially set out to capture vigilantism on the American side of the border, after becoming obsessed with the subject in a Rolling Stone article he chanced upon while riding the subway. But several months into filming, his father sent him an article that described the autodefensas pursuing the same goal from south of the border. What originally presented itself as a parallel story gradually revealed itself to be two similar stories set against starkly different backdrops.

“In Arizona there are not shoot-outs in the middle of the streets, there aren’t bodies hanging from bridges,” Heineman explains. “We as Americans don’t really recognize that there’s a war going on in the country just south of us, and we are largely responsible for that war. I wanted to put a human face to people standing up against this conflict and a human face to the cartels themselves.”

But the story the film tells isn’t the simple heroes-and-villains tale he originally set out to make. The more time he spent on the border, the more once-simple contrasts devolved into shades of gray. “I ended up with a story that was much different than the story I started with,” he says. “It unraveled in a way that I never could have expected.”

Cartel Land, which won awards at Sundance for documentary feature directing and cinematography, debuts at the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday and hits U.S. movie theaters in July.

Cartels and Vigilantes Clash in Mexico: Photographs by Jerome Sessini

Autodefensas Michoacan
Jan. 11, 2014. A gunman working for the Knights Templar cartel shot dead by vigilantes in the town of Antœnez, Michoac‡n.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Self defence militias Michoacan
Jan. 4, 2014. A vigilante gunman in Paracuaro, Michoac‡n.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Self defence groups Michoacan
Dec. 29, 2013. Caught between fear and surprise, the people of Poturo, Michoac‡n, gather in the main square to listen to the speech of JosŽ Manuel Mireles Valverde, who had just seized their village with 150 armed men.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Autodefensas Michoacan
Jan. 12, 2014. Vigilantes engage in a three-hour gunfight with the Knights Templar cartel in downtown Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Vigilantes in Michoacan
Jan. 6, 2014. Vigilantes set up barricades and a checkpoint to search cars at the main entrance to the town of Paracuaro, Michoac‡n.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Vigilantes in Michoacan
Jan. 5, 2014. A Knights Templar gunman shot dead by vigilantes during a 40-minute shootout at the entrance of Paracuaro, Michoac‡n.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Autodefensas Michoacan
Jan. 12, 2014. A three-hour gunfight between vigilantes and the Knights Templar cartel continues in downtown Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Autodefensas Michoacan
Jan. 12, 2014. A three-hour gunfight between vigilantes and the Knights Templar cartel continues in downtown Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Autodefensas de Michoacan
Jan. 5, 2014. Vigilantes stand at the site where JosŽ Manuel Mireles Valverde's plane crashed earlier in the week in Zicuir‡n, Michoac‡n.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Autodefensas Michoacan
Jan. 12, 2014. Vigilantes enter a house where a sniper for the Knights Templar cartel had been shooting from during a three-hour gunfight in downtown Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Autodefensas Michoacan
Jan. 12, 2014. A "Puntero," or watchman, working for the Knights Templar cartel is detained by vigilantes in Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Autodefensas Michoacan
Jan. 12, 2014. A three-hour gunfight between vigilantes and the Knights Templar cartel continues in downtown Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n, Mexico.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Autodefensas Michoacan
Jan. 12, 2014. Municipal policemen are detained in cells by vigilantes who have just seized town hall in Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Autodefensas de Michoacan
Jan. 5, 2014. Vigilantes advance upon the town of Paracuaro, Michoac‡n.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Vigilantes in Michoacan
Jan. 5, 2014. Downtown Paracuaro, Michoac‡n, appears deserted after vigilantes arrive.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
Vigilantes in Michoacan
Jan. 13, 2014. A vigilante inside the house of Enrique Plancarte Sol’s in Nueva Italia, Michoac‡n. Sol’s is one of the most wanted Knights Templar leaders.Jerome Sessini—Magnum

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Write to Eliza Berman at eliza.berman@time.com