Autlook has boarded as world sales agent for documentary “The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer,” which will have its world premiere in the Filmmakers of the Present Competition at Locarno Film Festival. Variety debuts a clip from the film here.
The film was partially financed by Mubi, which has retained U.K./Ireland and North America rights.
“The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer” is the feature debut from photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti, and was filmed over 25 years. It follows Guillermina and Belinda, two inseparable cousins growing up on neighboring farms in Argentina’s Pampas.
Beginning in 1999, when the girls are just nine, Sanguinetti captures their childhood games of make-believe slowly giving way to the weight of adulthood – work, family, motherhood and diverging paths. Set against the rural landscape of the Argentine Pampas, the film offers “an intimate, female-centred counterpoint to the region’s male-dominated gaucho mythology, becoming a profound meditation on time, friendship and what endures,” according to a statement.
The film is produced by Julia Solomonoff, and co-produced by Mubi and Impact Partners.
Sanguinetti is a Guggenheim Fellow, and has received a Hasselblad Grant, a Sundance Grant and a Rencontres d’Arles Discovery Award. Her monographs include “On the Sixth Day,” “The Adventures of Guille and Belinda” (volumes 1 and 2), “Some Say Ice” and “Sorry Welcome.”
Her work has been collected and exhibited by MoMA, SFMOMA, MFA Houston, Museo de Bellas Artes Buenos Aires and Fondation Cartier-Bresson. She has been a Magnum member since 2007.
Solomonoff was the chair of Tisch Graduate School of Film at New York University, where she continues to teach. She wrote and directed the feature films “Sisters” (Toronto and San Sebastian), “The Last Summer of La Boyita” (Cannes ACID winner) and “Nobody’s Watching” (Tribeca), the limited series “15 to the Hour” for Paramount+, and the documentary series “Parana, Biography of a River” and “Aerocene Pacha: A Sustainable Utopia.”
As a producer, Solomonoff focuses on emerging talent from Latin America. Her credits include Alejandro Landes’ “Cocalero” (Sundance), Julia Murat’s “Found Memories” (Venice, Toronto, San Sebastián), Júlia Murat’s “Pendular” (Berlin), Lucia Murat’s “A memoria que me contan,” Ana Piterbarg’s “Everybody Has a Plan” (starring Viggo Mortensen), Celina Murga’s “The Third Bank of the River” (Berlin), and Lucrecia Martel’s “Zama” (Venice, Toronto, NYFF).