There’s just something about the summer, no?
Especially when you’re a kid growing up, the warmest season is a time away from school, away from structure—a time where you’re really free to explore who you are. In many ways, it can feel like the most formative time in our lives.
That idea is at the heart of In The Summers, an indie drama from first-time feature filmmaker Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio (she/they), which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the top Grand Jury Prize.
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Loosely inspired by Samudio’s own childhood, the film takes place in Las Cruces, new Mexico and follows the relationship between two siblings and their father over the course of four pivotal summers.
When we first meet young Violeta (Dreya Castillo) and Eva (Luciana Elisa Quinonez), it’s in the parking lot of a small city airport where they awkwardly greet their father Vicente—played by René Pérez Joglar, better known as rapper Residente—who clearly isn’t a big part of their lives.
We gradually begin to understand that Violeta and Eva’s parents are separated, but they’ve arranged for the kids to spend their summer vacations with their dad, who clearly loves them but struggles to keep his own life together.
As the years pass, each visit is like its own short story, and the children are portrayed by progressively older actors. But it’s all connected by the ever-evolving dynamic of the family at its center, using beautifully drawn performances to demonstrate how our relationships inform out identity, even our relatives aren’t around.
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One fascinating and subtle way this plays out is through Violeta who, early on, begins displaying more “tomboy” like behavior, especially after meeting Vicente’s bartender friend Carmen (Emma Ramos) who presents a little more butch than femme.
Later on, as they get older, Violeta is played by trans-nonbinary actor Lío Mehiel, who had a major breakthrough performance in last year’s indie drama Mutt and will next be seen in Luca Guadagninos’ After The Hunt alongside Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, and Andrew Garfield. It’s through their layered work we understand the true impact Vicente’s version of fatherhood has had on his children’s understanding of masculinity.
There are some other familiar faces in the mix, too. Sasha Calle—best known for playing the DC Universe’s Supergirl in 2023’s The Flash—stars as the older Eva, still craving her father’s respect. And Leslie Grace—the would-be Batgirl who also stole scenes in In The Heights—play Yenny, Vicente’s much younger second wife, who has her own ripple effect on the family.
After its rapturous reception at Sundance, In The Summers was picked up for U.S. distribution by Music Box Films, which calls the feature ” both an emotional capsule of growing up within a fragmented family and a love letter to the resilience needed to survive.”
In The Summers is set to open in select theaters beginning September 20. You can check out the first official trailer below:
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