Alessandra Sanguinetti on Her Dreamy, Grounded Directorial Debut ‘The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer’
Photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti has premiered her debut feature, "The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer," in the Filmmakers of the Present section at the 79th Locarno Film Festival. The film follows Argentine cousins Guillermina and Belinda from childhood into adulthood, drawing on Sanguinetti's decades-long photographic project documenting the pair as they grow up, fall in love, have children and gradually grow apart, marking a shift from still photography into feature filmmaking for the acclaimed image-maker.
The film was produced by director-producer Julia Solomonoff, with financing from Mubi and Impact Partners, and uses grainy, home-video-style footage to weave together moments captured over more than 25 years of Sanguinetti's relationship with the cousins. She describes the project as organic rather than conceived, saying she never set out to make a film about two women growing up but simply wanted to remain close to Guille and Belinda. Critics have noted stylistic parallels with Alexandre Koberidze's "Dry Leaf," another Locarno title, though Sanguinetti says her use of video, unlike her more controlled photographic work, was about letting life unfold unscripted in front of the camera to later be shaped in the edit.
- Photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti debuts as director at Locarno Film Festival.
- Film traces two Argentine cousins' lives over 25-plus years.
- Draws on Sanguinetti's long-running photography project with the pair.
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Photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti has long been known for a project following two Argentine cousins, Guillermina and Belinda, whom she began photographing as children in the countryside decades ago, tracking them through adolescence, love, motherhood and beyond. That body of work has now become her first film as a director, shown at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, one of the longer-running festivals for independent and arthouse cinema in Europe.
The film blends home-video-style footage gathered over more than 25 years, reflecting Sanguinetti's own account that the project grew naturally out of her wish to stay close to the two women rather than any plan to make a film. It was produced by Julia Solomonoff, with backing from the streaming platform Mubi and the documentary funder Impact Partners, and screened in Locarno's Filmmakers of the Present section, which spotlights first and second features by new directors.
The story matters as an example of an established visual artist moving from still photography into filmmaking, and of a long-term, real-life documentation project being reshaped into a feature narrative rather than a straightforward documentary.