Alessandra Sanguinetti, a photographer, has released her first feature film, “The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer,” which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival’s Filmmakers of the Present program. The film was produced by Julia Solomonoff, known for her work on “Nobody’s Watching,” with backing from Mubi and Impact Partners.
The narrative centers on two cousins, Guillermina and Belinda, living in the Argentine Pampas. The film documents their lives across more than two decades, capturing their evolution from childhood pastimes like swimming and dancing through adulthood, including their romantic relationships and family responsibilities, as they gradually move toward divergent paths.
Sanguinetti’s distinctive approach combines home-video aesthetics with her decades-long photographic documentation of the two women. Rather than designing the project with a predetermined concept, the director explained that her extended familiarity with the subjects—spanning over 25 years—made the filmmaking process organic. She described her methodology as allowing life to unfold before the camera while maintaining her photographic eye to capture subtle moments often overlooked in the present but significant in retrospect.
The director reflected on the technical and artistic distinctions between her photographic and video work, noting that photography allowed for greater control and intentionality while video permitted a more observational stance. Through extended observation of the cousins, Sanguinetti identified recurring patterns, transformations, and developments in their lives that became foundational to her understanding of their trajectories.
Animals hold particular significance in the film, positioned as integral to both the rural landscape and the narrative. Sanguinetti emphasized her perspective that animals deserve equal consideration to humans and felt their roles in sustaining the agricultural ecosystem had been underrepresented in visual storytelling. The presence of livestock and farm animals alongside the human subjects reinforces the interconnected nature of life in the Pampas region.
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