Crime and Justice Film Festival: The Clan

Instituto Cervantes Manchester, in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University, is pleased to present the screening of The Clan, as part of The Manchester International Crime and Justice Film Festival 2025. The selected Argentinian film, directed by Pablo Trapero and released in 2015, is considered a reference within the genres of film noir in Argentina.

Argentina, 1980s. Under the deceptively calm gaze of their patriarch Arquimedes, the Puccio family live together, work together, kidnap together and kill together. Only a few years before, Arquimedes had worked for the Argentinian junta in its Dirty War, torturing and ‘disappearing’ political opponents (and extorting money from victims on the side). Now, democracy has been restored – but why should that get in the way of him and his family making a living?

The Clan is by turns a bloody gangster movie and a domestic black comedy, evoking both the brutality and the hypocrisy of junta-era Argentina. Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about it is that it is based on a true story: the real Arquimedes Puccio died of natural causes in 2013. To the end, he claimed to be a patriotic Argentinian who had been the victim of political persecution.

The Clan will be introduced by Dr Daniela Mardones-Bravo, Lecturer in Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University. Daniela will be joined for the post-screening Q&A by Dr Gavin Bailey.