Delivered with muscularity and verve, Pablo Trapero’s 80s true crime drama unravels the exploits of a well-connected Buenos Aires businessman and his rugby-star son and their ruthless kidnapping and ransom operation.
In Argentina everybody knows about the Puccio Clan case. In 1985 it was discovered that a spate of kidnappings and murders had been the work of the Puccios, a well-established Catholic family with five children from San Isidro, a high-class suburb of Buenos Aires. They had held the hostages in their basement, then, after the ransoms had been paid, murdered them. Mamá Puccio and the daughters were allegedly oblivious, but the sons were up to their necks, none more so than golden-haired national rugby star Alejandro (Peter Lanzani), used as bait to attract victims by the controlling paterfamilias. It is largely through the conflicted eyes of young Alejandro that the story unravels, but Guillermo (The Secret of Their Eyes) Francella’s icy composure in the paternal role dominates Pablo Trapero’s fearsomely compulsive film
