The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer

Cousins Belinda and Guillermina are inseparable. They live next door to each other on farms amid the vast plains of Argentina. Their neighbor is Alessandra Sanguinetti, a filmmaker and Magnum photographer. Over the course of 25 years, she follows their childhood games, dreams, emerging desires, and eventually the realities of life in a male-dominated rural community. While filming, Sanguinetti also took photographs, which briefly appear in the documentary.

The result is a tender portrait of female friendship, built on deep trust in each other and in the filmmaker. As the years pass, the film increasingly becomes a record of what changes and what remains the same in the transition to adulthood—which can sometimes arrive sooner than expected.

Sanguinetti’s feature-length debut is a monumental undertaking. What sets it apart from other long-term projects is the compactness of the finished film. Rather than drawing out the drama for effect, Sanguinetti opts for a subtlety that is perfectly in balance with the film’s surprising ending.