The Clan

In early 1980s Argentine, the military junta has lost its power and the country is once again under democratic rule. We meet the Puccio family, who on the surface is a typical middle class Argentinian family with seven members, although with a rather controlling patriarchal dad (Guillermo Francella). The second eldest brother, Alejandro, is a star on the local rugby team. However, beneath the surface the reality is quite different. The dad, Arquímedes, and his gang have in fact links to the former junta and do kidnappings and murders for them. Occasionally, Alejandro joins them, and he is stricken by terrible guilt when he helps out to kidnap one of his teammates at the rugby team. The victims are kept in the family’s basement, while the rest of the family tries to live their lives as normal as possible.

Gullermo Francella does a remarkably impressive performance as Arquímedes. With his laconic appearance and icy blue eyes he is the perfect example the banality of evil. In his own eyes he is just a small part of the system and has more or less no guilt in the tragic destinies of the people he kidnaps. The members of the family that question his actions are traitors. Director Trapero’s occasional use of cheerful music and cuttings between the everyday life and the brutal kidnappings make the viewer really experience the ambivalence on the inside of the Puccio family. There are no doubts that the acts of the father are wrong, but on the other hand it is a part of the everyday life and much of the reason why the family is a part of the middle class.

The Clan is based on true events and won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2015.

Two of 45 five year old Pablo Trapero’s films have been screened at the Films from the South festival earlier, White Elephants and Carancho. The latter was represented in the Un Certain Regard programme at The Cannes Film Festival in 2010. Trapero is married to actress Martina Gusman, who has acted in several of his films.