The Clan

A film set in Buenos Aires in the early 1980s and based on a real case. Arquímedes is a family man. Married, five children, and everyone in the neighbourhood knows him; the table is crowded and the evening meals are regular. The same man kidnaps people. He takes the children of wealthy families, negotiates ransoms, and keeps the hostages in the basement of his house. The house looks normal. Upstairs there is a meal, the radio is on, and downstairs there is a person tied up. His son Alejandro plays rugby. He is in a well-known national side and his father brings him into the business; his first tasks are choosing targets and driving. From there the film is a family story. Nobody speaks, everybody knows, and nobody leaves. What the narrative is interested in is not crime but continuity: the film is really about how a family made this ordinary, and nobody has a turning point. The period itself is inside the narrative. Military rule is ending and Arquímedes had worked for the state; he carries the work on out of habit. The mother is the matter. She says nothing, runs the house, and the film builds her not as a supporting character but as a silent partner. The use of music is deliberately contrary. The scenes of violence run alongside cheerful pop songs of the period. Guillermo Francella had been known until then as a comic actor; this part moved him somewhere entirely different. The film won Best Director at Venice and did extraordinary business in Argentina. Guillermo Francella, Peter Lanzani and Lili Popovich are in the cast. Pablo Trapero directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes cold crime films based on real cases. Who it is not for: anyone expecting an explanation; the film never goes into cause and does not try to understand its characters.