Trapero returns to Venice Film Festival with 'El Clan'

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine filmmaker Pablo Trapero returns to compete at the Venice Film Festival with "El Clan" (The Clan), a drama based on the real-life Puccio family who kidnapped and killed people around Buenos Aires in the 1980s. The dark film follows the family as they hold victims captive in their home for ransom money. Trapero's first film, "Mundo Grua" (Crane World), took two prizes at the world's oldest film festival in 1999. He also premiered his "Familia Rodante" there in 2004 and sat on the jury in 2012. "I'm happy to be back in the competition because it has been a long time since Argentina has had a film in competition in Venice," Trapero told reporters in Buenos Aires on Monday. The film stars Argentine actors Guillermo Francella as family patriarch Arquimedes Puccio and Peter Lanzani as his son Alejandro. "The process of working with Pablo (Trapero) was really helpful for to me to give life to these kinds of individuals with whom you don't have any kind of kinship with whatsoever; not in spirit, behavior or anything," Francella said. "Opposites are great for actors and to be able to explore something in an interpretative way, something different that makes you uncomfortable, it's usually ideal for me." "El Clan" opens in Argentina on August 13 and the Venice festival runs from Sept. 2-12. (Reporting By Reuters Television in Buenos Aires)