"The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer" is a documentary by photographer-turned-filmmaker Alessandra Sanguinetti, reviewed here from the Locarno Film Festival, following two Argentinian cousins, Guillermina "Guile" Aranciaga and Belinda "Beli" Stutz, as they grow from playful farm children into teenagers, women and mothers over 25 years of filming. The project grew out of Sanguinetti's earlier still-photography work on the same subjects, which had already produced exhibitions and books, but the film stands as its own coherent, more linear work rather than a mere extension of that archive.

Shot from 1999 onwards on the pampas outside Buenos Aires, the film captures the girls' inventive make-believe games, including playing a priest and grieving widow at a mock funeral, and imagining a road trip to Buenos Aires in a broken-down truck, alongside recurring scenes of them dancing to Argentinian pop and gaucho music. A pivotal, poignant moment comes roughly two-thirds through, when a pregnant Beli, worn down by married life, admits she no longer dances much, marking a shift from childhood joy towards adult hardship. The documentary was developed with Sundance grants, produced by Julia Solomonoff, and acquired by Mubi; it runs 1 hour 34 minutes.