The Clan (2015)

The true story of the Puccio Clan, a family who kidnapped and killed people in the 80s.

Director:

Pablo Trapero

Writers:

Julian Loyola, Esteban Student

Stars:

Guillermo Francella, Gastón Cocchiarale, Peter Lanzani

14 wins & 36 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Guillermo Francella	...	Arquímedes Puccio
Gastón Cocchiarale	...	Maguila Puccio
Peter Lanzani	...	Alejandro Puccio
Stefanía Koessl	...	Mónica
Aníbal Barengo	...	Basualdo
Aldo Onofri	...	Ordoñez
Rubén Estévez	...	Comisario
Miguel Ángel Lembo	...	Comodoro
Fabio Aste	...	Secretario Comodoro
Fernando Miró	...	Gordon
Juan Cruz Márquez de la Serna	...	Oveja Gonzalo
Santiago Privitera	...	Eduardo Aulet (as Juan Santiago Privitera)
Franco Masini	...	Guillermo Puccio
Antonia Bengoechea	...	Adriana Puccio
Lili Popovich	...	Epifanía Puccio

Storyline

The Puccios...? A model family! They are few, those that could match them. The father? A dignified man, (honest) storekeeper by trade, who cares about his five children, going as far as to supervise the homework of his youngest daughter. The mother? Both a dedicated teacher and a regular Martha Stewart. The children? Well-educated and promised to a bright future. Alejandro, for one, is already an admired rugby star. Except that... all this respectability is nothing but a smokescreen! The truth is that Arquimedes Puccio is also - and mainly - the tyrannical leader of a criminal gang composed of... his wife and children. Puccio's undercover activities ? Well, they consist in kidnapping rich people (preferably young), detaining them in his own house, torturing them gratuitously and doing away with them after cashing the ransom. The Puccios, a model family? Yes, but a model evil family!

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Plot Keywords:

rugby | kidnap for ransom | buenos aires argentina | 1980s | shot in the head | 

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Taglines:

Basada en la historia de la familia Puccio. [Based on the story of the Puccio Family.]

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Genres:

Biography | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, language and a scene of sexuality/nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook [UK] Official site [Japan]

Country:

Argentina Spain

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

13 August 2015 (Argentina)

Also Known As:

Klanen

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,519, 20 March 2016, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$186,255, 10 April 2016

Company Credits

Production Co:

El Deseo, Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA), Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the second film written and directed by Pablo Trapero to be featured in competition at the Biennale di Venezia, the first one being Crane World (1999), his first feature.

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Goofs

Car plates shown in the movie are not accurate. The movie takes place in in 80's and two different cars show the same plates (C1844288, first a grey Fiat 1500 when they are about to collect the first payment) and again the same plate later on. That number where about the last ones used in 1994 when Argentina changed the plate pattern to 3 letter + 3 number.

Also the kidnapping van shows two different plates on the back and the front (In Argentina using both plates is mandatory).

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Quotes

[upon kidnapping Ricardo Manoukian]
Arquímedes Puccio: [to Alex, who is seen breathing heavily] Are you ok?
[Alex doesn't answer; he gives a short glance to his father and keeps breathing heavily]
Arquímedes Puccio: Alex?
Alejandro Puccio: I'm ok, dad.

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Soundtracks

Sunny Afternoon
Written by Ray Davies
Performed by The Kinks

User Reviews

A Great Piece Of Work.

My wife and I saw this film at the Louisiana Film Festival last night not knowing what to expect. Before I go on, my wife and I have totally different views and tastes when it comes to the art of film but this time we both came out of "El Clan" pretty satisfied. This film started off pretty slow but did get a little more riveting as it went on. There really were no big surprises or twists in this film. It was pretty much straight forward but got more interesting as the film went on. The story is simple; The Puccio Family, who is a model family on the outside, is a family that is in the business of kidnapping rich people for money and then killing them. Arquimedes Puccio (Guillermo Francella) is a respectable store owner who has an adoring wife and five respectable kids but all of this is a front for what they really do, simple but good. The acting in this film was great, especially from Guillermo Francella who played the part of Arquimedes Puccio, the totalitarian leader of "El Clan". The program director for the film festival mentioned, because this film didn't win or get a nomination for the foreign film category at the Oscars, Twentieth Century Fox decided to drop it, which is a shame because it's actually a decent film. I had no regrets seeing it.