Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Spanish: Los amantes del círculo polar), 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.

The movie (told from the point of view of the two main characters), opens with Otto hanging from a tree by a parachute after surviving a fateful plane crash.

The next morning Otto writes a question about love on dozens of paper airplanes and sends them flying over the schoolyard.

They're read by everyone, including Ana's mother Olga and Otto's father Álvaro, who meet for the first time while commenting on this question.

She greets him warmly and openly; through her point of view we learn that she knows his name from his father's yelling and that she's surprised and delighted to see him again.

While their parents talk, Otto's voiceover reveals that he's hopelessly in love with Ana and wonders how she feels about him.

Otto feels for her, but he is delighted when his father marries Ana's mother: he will be close to his one true love.

Desire finally eclipses responsibility, and Otto moves in with his father, desperate for Ana's love.

They fall silent and Ana rests her head on Otto's chest and listens to his heartbeat.

Several more years pass and we see that they've succeeded in keeping their affair a secret, in spite of the fact that they're conducting it right under their parents' noses.

Otto, guilt-ridden and bereaved, leaves his father's house one morning without saying a word, and essentially disappears.

In utter despair, Ana locks herself in her room and cries, refusing to answer when her mother asks her what's wrong.

He becomes a pilot like his namesake and flies to Finland, a twist of fate which Olga cheerfully communicates to Ana via a video.

Olga's lover knows someone who has a cabin in Finland: it's none other than the man for whom Otto was named, the German pilot whose plane crashed during WWII.

Meanwhile, Otto is hanging from a tree, having survived a plane crash just like his namesake, and getting his parachute caught in the branches...

It then cuts to their reunion (which is only a dream), and it's revealed that Otto's face in Ana's eyes is the reflection of him leaning over her as she sees him one last time before dying.

[3] Julio Medem based part of the film on his own experience of unrequited teenage love for his next door neighbor.