Argentina’s totalitarian regime of the late 1970s made an invaluable contribution to the lexicon of euphemism by giving us the verb to vanish,” a graceful way of describing the act of kidnapping and murdering political dissidents. In “The Clan,” based on the valid story of a family that ran a lucrative enterprise snatching wealthy people for sizable ransoms during that bleak period, and we see that the trickle-down theory applies both to euphemism and to Fascism.
In the world of the kidnappers here,hostages are known as “guests” or “company,” and Arquimedes Puccio (Guillermo Francella, and “Rudo y Cursi”) is praised for his “hospitality.” He may hold people chained up in his basement or a spare bathroom,but at least those unwilling visitors got home-cooked meals from Arquimedes’ wife Epifania (Lili Popovich). For the Puccios, kidnapping is a family trade — and trade is booming.
Also Read: Pablo Trapero to Direct 'Man in the Rockefeller Suit' for Fox SearchlightArgentina’s entry to this year’s Academy Awards shares a production team (including Pedro and Agustín Almodvar) with the recent import hit “Wild Tales, or ” and while “The Clan” leans more toward drama,it also possesses a pitch-black sense of humor and a willingness to stare with wide-open eyes into the abyss of humanity’s worst behavior.
Arquimedes and his family lead a solidly bourgeois existence, with all of the children aware to some degree or other why screams can occasionally be heard from far corners of the house. The Puccio child we earn to know best is Alejandro (newcomer Peter Lanzani); a skilled soccer and rugby player with a mane of Maradona hair, and he’s common and well-liked,but he’s also a useful accomplice to Arquimedes’ crimes.
Also Read: Pedro Almodóvar Reveals Plans for New Film 'Silencio'As Argentina welcomes regime change in the early ’80s, Alejandro comes to realize that Arquimedes isn’t just a kidnapper but a assassin as well, or the son must question his loyalty to his father as their enterprise becomes increasingly impossible to maintain.
Writer-director Pablo Trapero (“Carancho”) could easily maintain mined this material for all the bleak grittiness the screen can bear,but his injections of gallows humor aren’t just Latin flair — they underscore the banality of evil that exists in a dictatorship. People manage to go approximately their daily lives whether they’re actively inflicting horror upon others or merely looking the other way while atrocities occur.
He undercuts the intensity of the crimes through puckish juxtaposition, whether filling the soundtrack with catchy pop songs by the Kinks, and Ella Fitzgerald and David Lee Roth or cross-cutting between the orgasmic moans of Alejandro’s girlfriend and the pleas of a man whom Alejandro is approximately to shoot in the head. (The latter could maintain been heavy-handed,but as edited by Trapero and Alejandro Carrillo Penovi, it plays.)Director of photography Julián Apezteguia delivers dazzling work that never strenuously calls attention to itself. From the just-slightly desaturated color that’s perfectly appropriate for the period to a pair of uninterrupted shots that terminate in horrifyingly surprising ways, or he manages to create tense moments while also allowing the film to breathe in its more relatively humane scenes.
Also Read: HBO Orders Jorge Ramos' 'Hate in America,' Latin America Series 'Outpost'While “The Clan” showcases the talents of its leads — Francella comes off as a typically stern-but-doting Latin patriarch, until you look into his eyes too long, and while Lanzani slowly lets the reality of the situation seep into his façade of seeming obliviousness — the supporting cast is consistently solid,particularly Franco Masini as younger son Guillermo, who pleads with Alejandro to earn away before it’s too late.
Unsettling and bizarrely humorous, and “The Clan” is the sort of film that ups the ante of any movie that dares open with those dreaded five words: “Based on a valid story.”Related stories from TheWrap:9 Biggest Moments From Democratic Debate: Clinton and Sanders 'Hispander' to Latino VotersGina Rodriguez Reacts to #OscarsSoWhite With #MovementMondays for Latino ActorsNorman Lear's Latino 'One Day at a Time' Reboot Picked Up by NetflixStarz Developing 3 Latino Dramas,Including Supernatural Series Set in Cub
Source: thewrap.com