In Gianfranco Rosi’s El Sicario, Room 164 (2010), a former sicario (‘contract killer’) for a Mexican drug cartel narrates a twenty-year career of torture and murder. Veiled to preserve his anonymity, he delivers his 80-minute monologue within the confines of a motel room. Though the ‘talking head’ is a well-worn device associated with televisual documentary, Rosi’s film, shot on digital, might be said to be anchored in a cinematic documentary tradition by recourse to another medium: drawing. As the sicario talks, he sketches cartel activities ranging from drug transportation to brutal physical violence on the pages of a notepad. This article considers how Rosi’s filming of drawing in El Sicario reveals something significant of drawing in film, in documentary and in this director’s documentary films in particular. Informed by Jacques Derrida’s reflections on drawing and by the ethical thought of Emmanuel Levinas, I suggest that the drawing of El Sicario illuminates concerns fundamental to documentary film – of sight and its occlusion, of scepticism and faith, evidence and education.

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