On the slope of a hill in northern Italy’s Po Basin stands Casa Girasole. Built in the early 1930s by the Italian architects Angelo Invernizzi and Ettore Fagiuoli, this villa exemplifies the Italian style Futurismo in architecture. But what makes Casa Girasole truly extraordinary is its ability to follow the sun across the sky, rotating using an electric motor and providing its occupants with a panoramic view of the surrounding landscape.

The award-winning documentary film Il Girasole. A House Near Verona offers an inside look into Casa Girasole, guiding audiences across the grounds and through the various rooms of the villa, which has been entirely preserved in its original state. Filmmaker Christoph Schaub and architect Marcel Meili provide not just a history of this architectural feat but also a survey of the period in which it was conceived.

The DVD is complemented by a booklet with introductory essays and illustrations and will appeal to anyone interested in twentieth-century architecture.