Eye For Film >> Movies >> Lovers Of The Arctic Circle (1998) Film Review
Lovers Of The Arctic Circle
Reviewed by: Angus Wolfe Murray
A film about coincidence poses the question: "If I hadn't been there at that time, or if this thing hadn't happened, my life would be completely different."
Otto meets Ana by chance when they are children. Otto's father and Ana's mother fall in love and marry. Ana's mother meets a TV producer, who offers her a job. His father lives in Lapland and has a connection, through an incident during the war, with Otto 's grandfather. Ana goes and stays in his cabin on the Arctic circle. Otto flies over in a transport plane.
The Spanish director, Julio Medem, has a unique imagination. The way he constructs this passionate, episodic love story is to weave a web of coincidence.
If the heart is a lonely hunter, it is also crap at directions. Once grown up and thrown apart, through every kind of emotional trauma, Otto and Ana search for each other. It is a fascinating journey, full of irony and insight, leading to the one night of the year when the sun never sets.
Reviewed on: 19 Jan 2001