Lovers of the Artic Circle MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +2 Content: -1

This Spanish film with English subtitles tells a strange love story about Otto and Ana (Fele Martinez and Najwa Nimri), who meet when they are eight years old. Anas father has died and Ottos parents are divorcing, and both children are grieving. Ottos father marries Anas mother, so Ana and her mother move in with Ottos father. The children hide their strong attraction to each other from their parents. The story is narrated alternately by Otto and Ana, who see things differently. As teenagers Otto becomes so obsessed with Ana that he leaves his mother and moves in with his fathers new family. There he and Ana begin a secret love affair. Tragedy splinters this troubled family, and Otto and Ana desperately seek happiness away from each other. He becomes a pilot for a courier airlines, flying between Finland and the Arctic Circle. Ana eventually seeks refuge in a remote cabin in the Arctic Circle. Will their paths ever cross again? Lovers has a poetic quality that will appeal to art film fans, but is probably too melancholy and eccentric for the general public.

Otto and Anas sexual involvement includes one bedroom scene that is preceded by them spying on her mother and his father having sex, which is implied by sounds. The two teenagers are shown soon after in bed together, with rear nudity briefly shown of both. Several years later, Otto and a woman appear nude together, although only a glimpse of rear nudity shows on camera. Otto breaks his vow to his mother that he will never leave her like his father had, which leads to her suicide. Ottos guilt about deserting his mother alienates him from his father and Ana. Ana begins an affair with a married man, and her mother leaves Ottos father. The heartbreak of divorce and death literally destroys two loving families. An angry young Otto slaps his father when he is told his parents are separating, and later the father slaps Otto during a heated argument. One crudity and five obscenities are spoken, plus one regular profanity. LOVERS has less foul language and sexual content than most R rated movies, but its depressing theme of a family destroyed through an absence of repentance and forgiveness will not appeal to viewers seeking positive entertainment.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughn
Distributor: Fine Line Features