New from Argentinian auteur Pablo Trapero (Lion’s Den, Carancho, White Elephant) is this disturbing and beautifully controlled drama; based on the astonishing true story of a seemingly normal middle-class family who turn to crime, it won the Silver Lion at Venice last year.
Clan Puccio is headed by charismatic, benign patriarch Arquímedes (Guillermo Francella), who lives with his wife and children, including rugby player Alex (Peter Lanzani). Unemployed after the Falklands War, Arquímedes starts kidnapping members of wealthy families and demanding ransoms, while holding them under his family’s nose.
The Clan takes place in Buenos Aires in the 80s, when Argentina was in the grip of a military dictatorship that specialised in ‘disappearing’ its suspected political opponents; and Trapero makes it clear that the climate of violence and corruption partly enable Arquímedes’s crimes. But as the country inches towards democracy, suspicion around him starts to grow.
Trapero brings an enjoyable swagger and ferocious wit to this immensely entertaining film, which explores the nature of authoritarianism and the banality of evil; as a country and at home.
