Lovers of the Arctic Circle

Lovers of the Arctic Circle, also known as The Lovers from the North Pole, is a 1998 Spanish romantic drama film written and directed by Julio Médem and starring Najwa Nimri and Fele Martínez. It won two Goya Awards in 1999. The film tells the story of Otto and Ana (whose names are palindromes), from their chance meeting outside school at the age of 8, until they meet again in their 20s in Lapland within the Arctic Circle, under the midnight sun. The themes developed in the film form an important part of Julio Medem's universe, and can be found in his other movies; these include love, death, destiny, nature, the circle of life and the coincidences in life. It received favorable critical reviews.[1] Plot The movie (told from the point of view of the two main characters), opens with Otto (Fele Martinez) hanging from a tree by a parachute after surviving a fateful plane crash. In voiceover he reflects on how he met Ana (Najwa Nimri), his stepsister and secret lover. 17 years before, when Ana and Otto were 8, Otto first sees Ana while rushing to retrieve a soccer ball in the forest outside their school, and is smitten immediately. Ana's voiceover reveals that she was also immediately enamored, but nothing is spoken. She had run into the forest in grief over her father's death and at first she thinks Otto might be her father's reincarnation, but she dismisses the idea after studying her father's photo in an album and finding absolutely no resemblance between them.