It was selected to be screened in the main competition section of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival,[3][4] where director Pablo Trapero won the Silver Lion.

The family comprises Arquímedes Puccio, the family patriarch; Epifanía Puccio, his wife; Alejandro, their eldest son and a star rugby player; Daniel "Maguila", their middle child, who'd left the country years ago and hadn't kept in touch; Silvia, their eldest daughter, a schoolteacher; Guillermo, their youngest son, who is still in high school; and Adriana, their youngest daughter, who is in middle school.

At the end of the Falklands War in 1982, Arquímedes, who had been working for the state's intelligence services in operations to capture communist guerrilla fighters, becomes the owner of a small shop, a deli.

In order to maintain his financial status, he decides to turn to crime and start kidnapping people for ransom, targeting wealthy families.

Alejandro starts to collaborate with his father, by identifying potential hostages, taking advantage of his popularity among friends and acquaintances to not raise suspicion.

The ransom improves the Puccios' economic situation and, by early 1983, they replace their family deli with a successful store selling sporting equipment.

In December 1983, after the return to democracy in Argentina, Arquímedes goes to visit imprisoned military officer Aníbal Gordon—who had participated with Puccio in the kidnapping of a businessman in 1973—and asks for advice on how to continue with the Clan's activities in the new political landscape.

However, things do not go according to plan: the ransom negotiations fail; Adriana hears the woman's screams coming from the basement and realizes what had been going on; and Arquímedes gets a call from his former military superiors warning him that his stunts have garnered too much public attention, so he no longer has their protection.

Both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter singled out the arresting soundtrack in their reviews; Variety called the choice of music "among the film's most unnerving strategies, reminiscent of Spike Lee's Summer of Sam, in which celebratory pop tunes evoke the era even as they practically serve to encourage the horrors depicted onscreen";[15] The Hollywood Reporter noted that the "loud, upbeat songs ... provide a counterpoint ... [suggesting] how kidnapping became simply a part of life for the Puccios.

[16] The film's success led to a 2015 TV mini-series also focused on the Puccio family, Historia de un clan, starring Alejandro Awada.