Argentine documentary La ilusión de un verano sin fin’ wins best Latin American film at San Sebastián festival

La ilusión de un verano sin fin (The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer), a feature-length documentary by photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti that follows two cousins over 25 years in the countryside, won the award for best Latin American film at the 74th San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain on Saturday.

The film is made entirely from footage Sanguinetti collected over the course of a quarter of a century, beginning when the cousins were nine years old and loved dressing up and dancing in front of her camera or swimming in the river, and continuing into their adulthood and motherhood.

“I see it as a poem, a love letter to the campo ("countryside,") Argentina and so much beauty that is in great danger,” Sanguinetti said during the festival’s awards ceremony in the northern Spanish city.

“My wish is that all that beauty can continue to endure and that the United States takes its claws out of Argentina,” she added.

Sanguinetti has previously criticised cuts to government subsidies for the film industry under President Javier Milei’s government.

The photographer also called for Israel to withdraw from Palestine and "other places."

“And that Israel takes its claws out of Palestine and many other places,” she said.

The documentary also explores the lives of women in rural Argentina, who have traditionally been portrayed on the margins of stories centred on men.

This idea goes back to Martín Fierro, the landmark 1872 poem by Argentine writer José Hernández, Sanguinetti explained in an interview with AFP in San Sebastián earlier this week.

The filmmaker’s relationship with the two cousins began when they were children and developed into a 25-year photographic project.

The resulting film charts the changes in their lives as they grow up, have children and navigate adulthood in the countryside.

La ilusión de un verano sin fin was one of 12 films competing in the Horizontes Latinos section, which showcases productions from across Latin America.

The other entries came from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Paraguay.

– TIMES/AFP