El Clan

An exciting film by Argentine director Pablo Trapero (Crane World, White Elephant) recounting the astonishing true story of a seemingly normal middle-class family that deals in kidnapping, ransoming and murdering the wealthy.

After the fall of the Argentinean dictatorship in 1982, the country triesd to enter a new phase of democracy and freedom. To Arguímedes Puccio, this means that he will not be able to continue his job with the regime’s secret service. In spite of the fact that the Puccio family from the San Isidro area of Buenos Aires is not particularly poor, the patriarch looks for an easy way to obtain a great deal of money.

He decides to use his knowledge of extortion and kidnapping, acquired in his years in the secret service, by forming a gang together with the rest of his family and kidnapping rich Argentineans. The popularity of his son Alehandro, a successful rugby player with the national team, is very useful in their endeavours. One of his affluent teammates becomes their very first victim. The boy is kidnapped in the Puccios’ house. But after a handsome ransom was paid, Arguímedes decides not to release the rugby player but to kill him.

With the money they collect, father and son open a store in surfing equipment. This shop actually only serves as a cover; the family continues with the kidnappings, turning their incarceration and killing into their macabre trademark.