Mexicans have protested against this year's action thriller film "Sicario."

The Denis Villeneuve movie, which bowed in theaters last week starring Benicio del Toro, Emily Blunt, and Josh Brolin, highlighted the border between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and the drug war in the area. The story was told in the point of view of Blunt's character Kate Macer, a top FBI agent recruited by Brolin's Matt Graver to join a CIA task force, led by del Toro's Alejandro, against drug cartels.

About thirty Juarez residents protested the film's portrayal of their city, holding up signs with messages such as "No somos sicarios," or "We are not hit men," Time reported from a local newspaper.

Juarez mayor Enrique Serrano called on citizens to boycott "Sicario" -- which means "hitman" -- and even threatened to sue movie producers for damaging the city's image and possibly affecting tourism and investment. However, the news outlet noted that Serrano drew back from this plan.

French-Canadian filmmaker Villeneuve said that the film's purpose is to shed a light to the disastrous bloodbath in Mexico caused by the drug war.

"We all know in this room how much violence is there," he said at a press conference in Cannes., as quoted by Time. "As a North American I know that I share part of a responsibility for that...As a filmmaker, I feel a responsibility...to embrace that reality."

The protesters insisted that the story "Sicario" has shown is no longer true. Time reported that Juarez was the top most homicidal city in the world in 2010 when the Sinaloa Cartel battled a local mob over the control of billion dollar trafficking routes. More than 3,000 homicides were reported back then.

However, the turf war came to a halt when arrests were made, along with social work and maybe a truce between the mobs, the news outlet added. Murders were reduced to 538 in the city, which is now out of the top twenty most violent areas. Cartel brutality has transferred to southern Mexico states, such as Guerrero.

Sandra Ramirez, a social worker in an NGO called Strategic Plan for Juarez, said that Serrano's objection against "Sicario" only intensifies the buzz around the film.

"There has been a reduction in homicides, but we still have big problems of violence, disappearances, poverty and corruption," Ramirez said, as reported by Time. "The mayor should be focused on fixing these problems, not on talking about a film."

She continued, "This could have gone unnoticed as one more action film, but the mayor is drawing attention to it. There is a reverse psychology that makes people here interested. They want to see what the fuss is about."