Starring: Guillermo Francella, Peter Lanzani
Distributor: Vendetta Films
Runtime: 110 mins. Reviewed in Aug 2016
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This is a film about domestic gangsters. In the past, in the 1930s, gangsters were presented as manic in their attitudes and behaviour, but heroes in their own minds and trying to communicate that to the society of the time. This was the area of Scarface, Public Enemy, Little Caesar. With the renewed interest of in gangster films in the 1970s, especially with the Godfather films, there was a great deal of mythmaking which some viewers saw as a glorifying of the gangsters and that ethos, the Mafia mystique.
While The Clan is the story of a gangster family, there is no glorification at all, the patriarch of the family, Arquimedes Puccio, is a completely sinister figure despite his sometime smile and the cover of his being a respectable shopkeeper and family man. As portrayed by Guillermo Francella, he is a cold and calculating man, a man of planning for the success of his family, a man of planning in the several kidnappings he oversees, finding his place in the society of his time.
The society of his time is that of Argentina in the 1980s. The film shows in prologue something of the history of the dictatorship from the 1970s to the 1980s, the rule of the generals, the number of citizens who disappeared – and some choose one to the Falklands war. With the connivance of authorities, Arquimedes Puccio and his henchmen engineered the abduction first of young men from wealthy families, demanding ransoms, setting up situations for collection of money, telephone threats, and the ugliness of killing their victims before they collected the money.
What is more sinister is the involvement by Archimedes of his family. His wife, seemingly middle-class domestic, was conniving in the abductions, especially in preparing the meals for those imprisoned in the family basement. The oldest son has moved away from Argentina to New Zealand, working as a shearer, but the patriarch sends his next son to bring him back and involves him in the abductions. The next son, Alex (Peter Lanzani) is a champion rugby player, admired by his footballing team, his coach, the public. He has access to the young men to be kidnapped and is persuaded to play a role, becoming more deeply involved in the criminal behaviour, the imprisonment, the collection of the money, further setups.
Alex falls in love and wants to withdraw from this family business but there is a succession of mistakes which lead to a raid on the family and imprisonment.
All the time, the audience wonders about the role of government officials, the nature of political corruption and protection, Archimedes and his patriotic loyalty, and wondering where the police are. By 1985, three years after the abductions had begun, the police go into action.
Of particular dramatic interest are the episodes where Archimedes confronts Alex in prison, wanting his son to beat him so that he can claim he was assaulted by guards and use this as part of his defence. He over plays his tactics with dire results for Alex.
The final credits give information as to what happened to each of the characters, each member of the Puccio family, Alex’s fiancee. And the note that Arquimedes studied law during his imprisonment and died at age 84.
A piece of Argentinian history by one of Argentina’s best directors, Pablo Trapero, a most telling performance by Guillermo Francella, and a cautionary tale.
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