The Clan.

Film producer, editor and director Pablo Trapero has been responsible for some excellent pieces of what has become widely known as New Argentine Cinema including Familia rodante (2004) a comedy drama about a family who embarks on a long road trip in an old cramped motorhome, Leonera (2008) a gritty film which addresses motherhood in the Argentinian prison system and Carancho (2010) a crime drama about ambulance chaser in search of potential clients for his law firm. His latest film is the award winning The Clan (2015) a film based on a true story about what is said to be Argentina's most notorious crime family and Trapero’s most commercially successful work to date.

Buenos Aires in the early 1980's and we are in the company of the Puccini family. Head of which is Arquimedes Puccini (Guillermo Francella), along side wife and mother Epifania (Lili Popovich) and their five children, three sons and two daughters Alejandro, Silvia, Danial, Guillermo and Adriana. All of which are involved in one way or another in the family business - kidnapping, extortion and murder. Without giving too much away, which would spoil the film, on the surface the family seem quite normal, living in what would appear to be a wealthy suburb, with the eldest son Alejandro becoming a well-known rugby player, the eldest daughter Silvia is a school teacher, with the two youngest children are still in school. Its when Arquimedes, who worked for the states intelligence service until the end of the Falklands war in 1982, becomes unemployed that he decides to turn to crime to maintain the families living standards.

Inter cut with shots of Argentina's political history and some great soundtrack, the film offers us no real insight into the motivation behind the families crimes other than perhaps money or maybe the fathers political background as part of the governments death squad and where as he thinks his is 'protected' which as you may imagine turns out not to be the case. It’s a story that's hard to believe if it was not true. On one level a cracking drama on the other a look at a countries complicity in murderous crimes.

Wakolda.

The Argentinian Lucia Puenzo is best known for her writing, but she has directed three feature films. The latest is a brilliantly crafted story of pure evil based on Puenzo own 2011 novel and about a person who actually existed. Wakolda (2013) is set in Patagonia in 1960 and involves a German doctor who befriends a family and accompanies them on a long journey to a place called Bariloche where Eva (Natalia Oreiro), Enzo (Diego Peretti) and there children intend to start a new life by reopening a hotel that has been left to Eva, who her self was raised in its German speaking community. The property is on the edge of the beautiful Nahual Huapi Lake and very close to a rather secretive hospital.

 

Why is  Helmut Gregor so interested in an underdeveloped 12 year old?

Helmut Gregor, the knowledgeable elegant doctor, is their first paying boarder. He takes a rather unhealthy interest in the family’s daughter Lilith, (an impressive debut from Florencia Bado who does a great job of narrating the story) because of her small build, she was born prematurely and gives the impression of being around eight years old but who is actually twelve. As time goes on Enzo distrusts Gregor even more when he discovers his interest in his wife’s pregnancy - whom it turns out is expecting twins.  What they are unaware of is the true identity of their guest. Is he what he seems, what does he enter in his journal, what is his relationship with the other German’s he meets, what goes on at the hospital and who are the people that are brought there by a sea plane which lands and takes off on the lake? It’s not until a local female photographer, who is also an Israeli agent from Mossad, takes an interest in the hotels guest that the truth finally comes out.

 

What does the visitors secretive writings really mean?

The film conveys an overall impression of menace that percolates every single scene.  And its credit to the director that a parallel story that involves Lilith, Enzo and the German doctor in the design and mass production of identical perfect looking porcelain dolls (do they all resemble Lilith facially?) also adds to that menace. A lot of the movies ‘authenticity’ is due to the superb role-playing by Spaniard Alex Brendemuhl who plays suave German Doctor with an underlying threat that never seems far from the surface.  An extremely interesting, tense thriller that look’s at the closed German society that existed in Argentina, a society that guarded it secret’s with pride and vigour. It is alleged that 6% of Germanys population left Europe at the end of WW2 and settled in this South American country!

Lions Den.

A story about raising young children in an Argentinian prison.

Pablo Trapero’s fourth film is not your standard movie about motherhood and the strong links between a mother and her child mainly because the mothers and children involved in Lions Den (2008) are behind bars[1] The film is about a middle class student called Julia who gives birth to her son Thomas in jail while awaiting trial for allegedly murdering her boyfriend and stabbing his male lover. Julia’s life in prison bringing up her child is shown in detail and demonstrates the difference between the rather nervous unsure pregnant student lost in the general unease of the prison system and the change in her demeanour after she becomes a mother, developing a powerful survival instinct.

Unfortunately this film had a limited release in the UK in 2010 from a director who has since became very well known for Carancho (2012) which was selected as the Argentine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83^rd Academy Awards but eventually lost out to the Danish drama/thriller In a Better World (2010). Lions Den again stars Trapero’s wife the 31 year-old Martina Gusman who is also the Executive Producer. Actually filmed in maximum-security prisons including Buenos Aires Batan Penitentiary and using prison guards and inmates as extras this, and the research within the prison system that the husband and wife pair carried out, really pay’s of giving the film a socially realistic documentary style.

Martina Gusman with her on screen child Thomas.

Martina Gusman appears in every scene and certainly gives a convincing performance highlighting what she has called the ‘forgotten issue’, that is to say the stress and pressure put on women bring up their children inside prison. Her portrayal also ensures that you will find this film very moving and will not have any qualms about empathising with the mothers no matter what their crimes, children are the most precious commodity there is and should be treated as such. Both director and leading actress, who obviously care about their subject, have argued publically for a different system to be introduced for mothers with very young children. Yes, to an extent the movie is a political stage but one that’s well disserved. Although this is an affecting film it is also very enjoyable and at times quite humorous.

No place to raise children.

Regarding his approach to filmmaking Trapero says that he try’s to tell stories that can give you a different view of life, that can touch or move you indifferent ways. He likes to be close to the characters, not just following a story and observing. He also says that he likes bringing to the screen the sense that you are sharing a part of your life with a fictional character, and in the three films I have seen from this very talented Argentinian director he more than succeeds.

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[1] In ARGENTINA, female convicts can keep their children with them in prison until the child reaches the age of four. This can create an atmosphere conducive to child abuse and neglect. In many developing nations, inmates depend on family members to provide them with food, clothing and special medical care. Inmates whose families are not able to supply the basic necessities, or who have been abandoned by their families, often wear rags and eat only what they are able to beg from other inmates.

Carancho.

Ambulance chasing is a term that refers to a lawyer that pursues ambulances to the emergency room of a hospital following an accident with the object of sourcing new clients, a practise that’s prohibited in certain countries. In Argentina, a country where there are some 8000 deaths and 120000 injured in road accidents every year, the practise is called carancho literally ‘vulture’. Based on these statistics a sizable industry has grown up in a country where corruption is a way of life and exploits these incidents for financial gain, involving the victims, their relatives, lawyers, the medical profession and the police all looking for slice of a lucrative monetary pie. 

Director and producer Pablo Trapero (Famila rodante 2004) has used this rather disturbing subject for his latest movie, Carancho (2012). The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) star Ricardo Darin plays the recently expelled lawyer Sosa and Trapero’s wife Martina Gusman take’s the part of thirty something Lujan, a trainee doctor who has recently arrived at the Buenos Aires hospital from the Argentinian provinces who not only gets romantically attached with Sosa but also gets involved with his insurance scams while attempting to keep her drug addiction under control.  Since loosing his licence Sosa has been working as a carancho for a shady company called La Fundacion mediating between road accident victims and insurance companies to extort as much money as possible from both.

Ricardo Darin as Sosa.

 This noir thriller is shot in documentary style, mostly at night, which gives this movie a tough social authenticity. Maybe not a world you would like to inhabit, but a film you should see. It forms part of the resurgence of Argentinian cinema that includes movie like Las Acacias (2011) The Secret in their Eyes that won the 2010 Oscar for best foreign language film and The Headless Women (2010).  

Martina Gusman as Lujan.

Las Acacias.

Anahi, Jacinta and Rubin.

The lonely truck driver Rubin.

 Who would have thought that such a simple story line would make such a wonderful and emotive movie? Co written, produced and directed by Argentinian Pablo Giorgelli Las Acacias (2011) is a slow paced film about a truck driver who spends his working life in the cab of his vehicle transporting logs on the highway that links Asuncion in Paraguay to Buenos Aires in Argentina. Into this closed isolated world come’s single mother Jacinta (non-actor Hebe Duarte) and her 8-month-old baby Anahi. Rubin (German de Silva) has been asked by his boss to take them across the Paraguayan border and drop them off at Jacinta’s cousins in Buenos Aires, much to his disapproval. It’s this journey and the reactions between the three that forms the basis of Giorgelli’s debut film.

Single mum Jacinta

As I have said previously the pace is slow with most of the action playing out within the cab of the lorry. There’s minimal dialog with hardly a word said for a large part of their journey but with the superb facial and body language between Rubin and his fellow passenger’s who needs words, its completely devoid of any musical soundtrack, in fact the only soundtrack is natural things like traffic, street and birds noises. There are only three protagonists, and one of them is a baby, mind you if they gave film awards for the best on screen baby I’m sure little Nayra Calle Mamani who plays Anahi would win it, she really is gorgeous and will melt your heart. This is a satisfying and rather special film where less is more, a film that has a convincing level of gentle emotional energy and fully deserves the Camera d’Or it won at Cannes this year. Don’t miss it!

The gorgeous Anahi.