Beate Jensen, Fele Martínez, Jaroslav Bielski

The moment they meet, 8-year-olds Ana (Sara Valiente) and Otto (Peru Medem) know they have a special connection. After all, their names are both palindromes -- spelled the same whether they're read fo...( read more  read more... )rward or backward -- and each has a parent looking for a mate. But when their families finally meld, the two children, now young adults (played by Victor Hugo Oliveira and Kristel Díaz) realize that they, too, may share a romantic destiny.

Flixster Users

93% liked it

8,186 ratings

Critics

83% liked it

23 critics

R, 1 hr. 52 min.

Directed by: Julio Medem

Release Date: September 4, 1998

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DVD Release Date: April 25, 2006

Stats: 658 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (658)


  • July 26, 2008
    Beautiful beautiful beautiful film!! A story about the circle of life, unfulfilled love, and longing.



    I think the less you know about the plot, the better. I am already a little sorry that I'd read about it so much before watching it, but since a slight outline is ne...( read more)cessary I'll put it like this: Otto and Ana's lives are doomed to follow a circle. Begin it and close it. Their love is so beautiful and perfect that it can't but follow the same scheme: begin with a casualty and end with one, begin with intensity and end with it.



    The story is told from the points of view of both characters throughout their infancy, adolescence, and adulthood. Their communication is silent, they understand each other entirely, and they love each other in secret. Casualty dominates their fates, and so casualty after casualty leads them to find each other, grow apart, and find each other again, until it takes them to the Arctic Circle for the closing of their circle. It sounds a little cheesy, but it's nothing like that: the film is sublime, the romance is subtle and hushed. The intensity is in the longing, and how. Otto and Ana are lost without each other. They live in accordance to where their love takes them.



    I think these days it's difficult to make a believable film about love, which doesn't mean that the events that constitute this story are entirely believable, but the love is. It's about surrender and companionship, not about crazy doomed mindless lust or sticky-sweet giggling sentimentalism. Which is what we usually get. The story has erotic moments, but it doesn't limit itself to that. Lovers of the Arctic Circle doesn't think we're so stupid we won't get it. It lets the audience get lost in it, and it works.



    Julio Medem relies heavily on casualty to explain the events, which gives the film fairytale tones. Still, the mysticism doesn't obstruct the purity of the story. Also, the narrative structure is not lineal: we go from adulthood to childhood in seconds, one event is sometimes integrated into another. Medem blurs the lines between hope, dream, and reality, to a brilliant outcome.



    Finally, all actors are simply excellent. All performances are without flaw. Fele Martinez and Nawja Nimri are simply perfect.



    In short, the film is astonishing. The emotional involvement it brings (a few hours after I'd seen it, in my case) is without comparison. Even though it's rather cold, it's not antiseptic; we get the feeling we're being allowed to look through a hole in the wall, permission to take a peek into someone's own personal love story, which is why it seems isolated from us. Some things, thoughts, we're not allowed to know, but we can guess. And all of this happens to take place in a wonderful world in which fate and love dance together. It's a real accomplishment, one of the loveliest films I have ever seen.
  • April 5, 2009
    Freaking tantra.Ah yes,the herbs of amour and the joint of the sexes,mystical environments,Medem is a resident of mysterious communications.Ana-Otto,the train of one element.That of surreal expiation.
  • October 14, 2009
    An atypical love story between OTTO & ANA (two palindrome names hinting the "cycle" idea which was further conveyed in Julio Medem's movies [Sex And Lucia] & [Chaotic Ana] afterwards). In addition to the usual impressive visual images & occult story building-up, [The Lovers Of Th...( read more)e Arctic Circle] is perhaps the lightest, cutest, the most approachable & romantic movie Medem has ever made, if not the easiest one.
  • August 12, 2009
    jejje ejejej que buena peli , aparte de tener buenos actores como najwa tiene buen guion , buena de principio a fin , no se compliquen solo veanla woowwwww
  • June 4, 2009
    demasiadas escenas de sexo que sobraban pero el resto estuvo original, aunque el final me dejo un poco confusa =o.
  • May 28, 2009
    realmente inolvidable
  • May 10, 2009
    Lovers is a very beautiful movie.
    I would have to say that this is one of the better foreign language movies I have seen. I could not keep my eyes off of it from the moment I started watching it.

    It is filmed in Spanish and has English subtitles.

    The stor...( read more)y takes place in Spain and later in Finland... and is about a boy and a girl that first meet when they are 8 years old... and are obviously destined to be with one another... yet they end up becoming step siblings because the boys dad and the girls mom get married. Their obsession with each other carries through out their teen years and into early adulthood.

    The story was somewhat erotic, yet innocent. both the adult leads and the actors playing their teenage selves had incredible chemistry.

    The haunting imagery and story was beautiful. And the occasional skipping back and forth between their younger years and teen and adult ages was a spectacular way to tell their story.

    All in all this movie gets a big WOW from me.... even up through the ending.
  • January 6, 2009
    This movie is poetry; beautiful yet dark, sad yet heart warming.
  • December 13, 2008
    i love it!!
    when i was watch this movie i love it
    and now i still love it

    ...when the sun of midnight illuminate the couple love
  • November 17, 2008
    Una gran película, la historia es barbara el amor por el amor, el amor solo siendo amor, humano y perecedero como la vida misma.
    Una peli azul

Critic Reviews


January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The movie is about love -- or, rather, about their grand ideas of romance. It is comforting to think that we can love so powerfully that fate itself wheels and turns at the command of our souls. full review

View more The Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Los Amantes del Círculo Polar) (The Lovers from the North Pole) reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • Roselena
    March 20, 2007
    yo te quiero a ti
  • thewitch572000
    March 13, 2007
    Solo la he visto una vez pero me encanto es hermosa!!!
  • papasote2001
    February 1, 2007
    Habla de el amor en si y sus maticies y mutaciones... tan extrañas como para decir loq ue sientas y tan sinceras como para no decir nada. toda una obra de arte que te deja callado ys sin aliento....

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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