Los amantes del Círculo Polar
Tags: romantic, philosophical, haunting, flashback

Plot synopsis:
The film is circular in plot as well as in a number of other ways (for example, the names of its main characters, Otto and Ana, are both palindromes). The film is centered around an incestuous love relationship between step-siblings. The two meet one day after school, when Ana's father dies, and her mother marries his father. Ana believes that Otto is the reincarnation of her father, but eventually the two of them fall in love. For a number of reasons, they are eventually separated, and Otto becomes a pilot flying between Spain and the Arctic Circle. Ana moves to the same area to leave behind her past and past lovers, and tries to get in touch with him again.
The movie plot is about two step-siblings who know each other since they were children. As they grow up, they find out that their love is not just a family love. They want to have a relationship like real couples have, even though they know it is prohibited they found a place where they can see each other at night. As time passes by their parents get divorced and they get separated. Ana's mother moves abroad, and Ana travels to Finland from where she persuades Otto to travel north to look for her. The deaths and lives of the characters are made more confusing through anachronisms and plot details.
The movie ends on an ambiguous note: in one version, Ana and Otto are reunited, while in the other Ana dies in a car accident. It is unclear which of the endings is real.

Review: The next scenes, where we can see them as secret lovers hiding from the parents are so beautiful that the last one hour, when Otto leaves Ana and works as a pilot and they don't meet for years, is one of the most sorrowful one hour in the film history.
But for some of us, who are in contact with a different way of making films, this one excels at the visual poetry from the very start.And from a cinematographer's point of view, as a real jewel in filmmaking.
Medem demands his audience to think (remember Abre los Ojos).It's really sad to think that linear and flat plots that only demand to sit and watch are what most people see as good films.
And anything that can do that, and do it using the language of dreams in such a way that makes love more lucid  if it can do that, you'll want to see it, handle it, co-invent with it  turn it over in your mind, a golden woven solid of wires as geometric urges.And it is so much richer if you know the story between the filmmaker and his father to whom this is dedicated.
The connections are so intricate and complex, the visual storytelling so compelling, I was just blown away by this film, and I felt the rest of the audience was right there with me.If you've seen and liked THE LOVER you'll like this-- it's one of those slow, languid, dreamy and beautiful movies about a true love that lasts beyond all circumstances.
"Lovers of the Artic Circle (Los Amantes del Círculo Polar)" was basically "Next Stop Wonderland" crossed with "Map of the Human Heart" about a couple who fall in love as children and continue star-crossed throughout their lives.
In this circle of love and life, strange things occur that they see from different perspectives.This film is the sort of foreign art-house cinema that will make some viewers pull their hair or fall asleep with boredom, so maybe be careful if you are the type of viewer more at home with Porky's rather than anything cerebral; but for everyone else this strange yet engaging film is well worth a look.
This doesn't help the heart of the film though, and at times I did find it very cold and uninvolving  the characters weren't really real enough and I found the coincidences to actually stop the story being moving and occasionally did make it feel gimmicky.
It is not really their fault because the film is more interested in the ironies of the circling life and coincidences rather than getting to the heart of the characters  they try hard but this is not a film to watch for strong acting performances.Overall this is a good film but one that may leave many viewers cold and unimpressed by the gimmicks; however many others will be won over by the clever delivery that is filled with mini circles within circles all within the overall palindrome of the total product.
One of the most valuable films I've seen in a long time, rich in all the parts with space perfectly aligned to contemplate; ideally this means for me a still point that grounds us in some latent emptiness, usually an image or images of some purity, here a midnight sun, and arranged on top of that a universe in concentric cycles, each one a kind of life, that turn with motions invested by us, love, desire, hate, whatever we put into life, each turn a kind of fate that we have set in motion.There is all of that here, life as we also know it, with the mechanisms that control it, structured to palindrome from one end to the other like the names of the participants.At the surface we have a kind of Kieslowskian construct of sliding narratives and melancholy lushness, expressed with a capacity for spontaneous magic that was in the 80's the turf of Raoul Ruiz; we have lives full of tragic detail, powered by invisible fates that trick, break, seduce, create the yearnings of a lifetime, mirror up and down, fates because we only have these eyes to look at the world, and look once as we pass through, though recalling many times over in our journey, so everything must have a deeply cosmic import.
Paper planes are sent flying through the window, and they all come crashing after a short flight; but now and then, one of these fleeting gestures can sling together entire lives.Now peel away time: it is a story of a boy and girl falling love, mirrored many times over, in youth through old age.
Medem shot this film after getting divorced, because it was the first time he experienced heartbreak and he wanted to write a movie about the love as the most powerful force, something that never ends and it's forever between two people .
It is a thought-provoking film dealing with a story of solitary people , as a strange , unsettling young , well played by Fele Martinez , and his lover , subsequently suffering a sad separation , being rivetingly performed by Najwa Nimri .
No question that Medem has style, not to mention an interest in breaking up the film's narrative which is quite intriguing.Seeing all the action not only through the eyes of the tempestuous Otto and then through the viewpoint of the more patient Ana (so we not only see the reality of situations but also the imagined fantasies beyond them) is a process that works but which actually takes a bit of getting used to.Ultimately though there is a nagging feeling about whether this really was a story worth telling..
It's not about lust, its about love in the purest sense i.e. about searching and finding a soul mate.Although the movie bears some resemblance with some of the movies I've already seen, for instance the trilogy 'Three Colours' and the contents is not without comparison with Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights' I'd still proclaim the amalgam of great acting, beautiful camera that's in some scenes on the verge of absolute perfection (I mean in danger of having no flaw at all) and poetically told story from 2 angles (well in my opinion 3, since I'd consider Polar Circle's part a third angle) a true work of genius and I rate it 10/10..
In a wellspring of seeming coincidence two lovers are united.This movie was the most fabulous "love story" I have ever witnessed/ it culminates in a circular ending that qualifies the beginning and leaves questions answered and yet answers all questions.
One of the Most Beautiful Films About Love You'll Ever See. It's hard not to rave about this wonderfully written masterpiece."Los Amantes del Círculo Polar" stars Fele Martínez (who was in famous movies like "Tesis", "Abre los Ojos", and "La Mala educación") and the heartbreakingly beautiful Najwa Nimri (who made her star-turn in "Lucía y el sexo") as Otto and Ana who fall in love with one another as children and try to carry this love through their whole lives.
Great performances, a stunningly beautiful cinematography, and Medem's masterful direction make "Los Amantes del Círculo Polar" one of the most enjoyable Spanish movies ever.If you like this one, I also recommend "Reconstruction" and the movies by Krzysztof Kieslowski..
Los Amantes is a stronger film, the protagonists are far more believable and engrossing, also because the fated aspect of their relationship is set up clearly from the start and there's a feeling of inevitability that manages to support the whole artifice of the plot structural symmetry.The lead actors are very good at portraying the fragile, adolescent beauty of their story, and the supporting roles add touches of realism where needed.
In some ways the theme of fated love stories reminds me a bit of Kieslowski's Trois Couleurs series of films, but it is a lot less heavy and more enjoyable.
In The Lovers Of The Arctic Circle (Julio Medem's would be masterpiece) that's exactly what we see happen.Watching this movie is like watching two people use up a fountain pen they're going to desperately need for a memo, on doodles and frivolities, so that by the time they get around to WRITING the memo they can barely get two sentences down on paper before the ink runs out completely.The movie's title -The Lovers Of The Arctic Circle- leads us to believe that the big denouement (when it happens) is going to happen in the Arctic Circle.Yet Finland barely gets a slice here, and the denouement is not some sublime experience...It's more like a heartbreaking disappointment.In many ways it's like a fairy tale with the happy ending at the beginning:Once upon a time there were two children named Ana and Otto who met, fell in love, and we're able to be together because their parents also met, fell in love and got married.As teens they became lovers, and were able to live together, and keep their romance a secret.Everything's wonderful, everything's perfect.
Otto can't cope with it, and deserts Ana, shattering both their lives.They need to get back together, of course, but this never really happens, as all the material they needed for this reunion has been thoroughly used up already.So that instead of their ardent passion being crowned with glory, we get a reunion that's nothing but a dream, a woman hit by a truck; her helpless lover's face reflected in her dying eyes with not so much as a word spoken between them.You can't think of this movie without thinking of Sleepless In Seattle which succeeded in all the ways Julio Medem's opus failed.In Sleepless In Seattle we see two people rising to embrace their own destinies.
And we know their going to stay together.In Lovers Of The Arctic Circle we see two people who are given a destiny that's like a gorgeous painting...then watch as they systematically destroy it:Through a love note initiating a sexual relationship that wasn't ready to take place.Through a grief-driven abandonment severing a connection they will never find again.This is a story which starts out very well, but is ruined the moment Otto's hand touches Ana's thigh, and we see all the tension bleed out in the scenes that follow.As the two of them neck shamelessly while they're supposed to be doing their homework.
When Dylan Thomas wrote (fragments): "The ball I threw while playing in the park has not yet reached the ground Though lovers may be lost, love shall not and death shall have no dominion  Doctor Julio Medem's Los Amantes del Circulo Polar (Lovers of the Polar Circle) is one of the best movies everChance, fate, law of attraction...everything is never as exactly as we wish...But quite often, we come to see clearly the most beautiful moments of our lives, just only when those moments have come to be the pastTo summarize the movie in a romantic manner, I wrote this little poem from Ana's perspective: "My darling, I was running madly in love looking for you, and though I never made it -to the other side of the street, I did manage to see your face: the most beautiful image my eyes ever sawplease look carefully in my eyes; there You AreForever!" Signed: Ana. Bravisimo Doctor Medem!
NO SPOILERS -A delightful film about fate, about our choices in life, about the power of our emotions.The story of the lives of two lovers that are brought together by fate, or not?
Any film buffs willing to watch a foreign subtitled movie please see if your local Blockbuster has Julio Medem's LOVERS OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.
"Lovers of the Arctic Circle" tells the love story of Ana and Otto from childhood into adult life with a carefully crafted precision which makes a simple romantic tale an inordinately complex jigsaw puzzle.
Told through various perspectives which shifts between the two protagonists point-of-view and a brilliant circular narrative reminiscent of those used in the films of Krzysztof Kieslowski (1941-1996), this distinctly directed Spanish-French co-production draws two merging studies of character while examining themes such as coming-of-age, family relations, destiny, grief and love.Julio Medem's partly autobiographical story about the ambiguous nature of coincidence and love has a distinct visual style and a shifting atmosphere which is reinforced by cinematographer Gonzalo F.
This will leave you wondering and stunned at the end.It shows that the life goes full circle and full of surprises at every moment denying the fact of reasonability.Two people madly in love with each other will drive you crazy in every frame of the movie.
THe story is told to us form tow points of view (Ana and Otto) at the same time, which can result a little confusing at first (but it is VERY well done).
This DVD feature pays off especially for the appreciation of Spanish writer-director Julio Medem's creative storytelling in "Lovers of the Arctic Circle." His approach is likened to a visual Web, presenting to the viewer the back and forth links/viewpoints between Otto and Ana, their thoughts/narration, love/feeling towards each other, and the surrounding/peripheral relatives and coincidental individuals in their encounters.
Amid such coincidences, however improbable they might seem, tender adolescent love matures between comings and goings Madrid  Roveniemi (Finland), as well as what may appear to be incoherent use of flashbacks and flash-forwards seemingly haphazardly, but in effect works a tremendously appropriate tool in developing the story, as told alternately between Otto and Ana.The intricate architecture of the film might make following the story-line something like a bit of guesswork in the early stages; but an intelligent viewer will soon cotton on to the disjointed sequences and even end up admiring the technique for being somewhat original.
Lovers of the Arctic Circle is a Spanish film about two lovers, Otto and Ana, who meet by chance as kids, split as adults, only to have one more chance at love in the end.
It's a movie about coincidences and circles involved in someone's life and unfolds like a good Spanish book.
I wasn't sure if it was a movie that could hold my attention at 3 a.m., but this one sure did thanks to a quick editing style and a fast paced love story with some wonderful transitions that put to good use the visual medium of film.
Otto and Ana end up meeting here.The film was full of twists and turns.
Some movies are created to captivate while others accomplish this just by the way they are directed,  Julio Medem's "Lovers of the Articc Circle" is one of these films.
Ana finally comes to the realization that she wants to feel love for Otto and they become lovers.
Tragedy,coincidence and fate play major roles as well in this beautifully crafted and well acted film."Lovers" is about two children,Ana and Otto,who meet as eight year olds and are drawn together by love and a series of coincidences as lifelong soulmates.
Played by three sets of actors throughout the various stages of life-development,Otto and Ana meet while running in the same direction but for entirely different reasons.This is significant as it signals a film-long theme of viewing major events of one's life from two entirely different perspectives.
This is the story about Otto and Ana, two children that meet at the school, whose life is full of coincidences.
The film has nothing to do with Spain's history, or anything like that, it's just a love story, told following a personal poetic style, that's all.
The former believes that love stories like in his film don't exist, but that it's good to think they do.
THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW...This is second Julio Medem film that I have seen, it is very similar in style to Lucia y el sexo, but Lovers of the artic circle touched me more, it had more of an effect on me for some reason.
I have seen this movie five times and none of those the story has lost its magic, the chance of love between Otto and Ana turns out to be a whole odyssey that leads us to think about fate that so much importance and influence has in our life.
The exciting about this tale is that this is something that could happen to anyone in his life because love itself is an enormous coincidence between two human beings: coincide in time and space, and set in each other.The plot posed by Julio Medem is shocking, surround and intriguing, anyone as a viewer is trapped by everything that happens along the entire life of both characters and is moved by the tragic outcome of the lovers in the title's Arctic Circle, ending sealed by the destination, such as Romeo would say in the history of Shakespeare, makes them become in simple toys of life.Unfortunately the film has some technical details that tarnished the mastery of story and remain the value of certain scenes, some examples are when Otto is pilot or the sleigh accident.
CONTAINS SPOILER:  Julio Medem's Lovers of the Arctic Circle not only have the word `circle' in the title, and not only mentions circles several times throughout the film, but moves in a cyclic manner.
When Otto is flying to the Arctic Circle to see Ana after several years of being apart, he says to himself that his life is a giant circle, but it just isn't connected yet.When the film ends, we are left with what seems like an ending from one of those `choose your own adventure' books.
Lovers of the Artic Circle by Julio Medem could easily been left thought of as a unique film of love, life, coincidences, and destiny.
The film contains many aspects of live and uses this circle of life theme if you will in telling of coincidence, fate, love, and finally death.
Therefore, by this unique point of view between the eyes of Ana and Otto, this open ending leaves one to wonder what the film is really trying to explain about these circles in life with love, fate, and death.