In romance, lovers live in isolation, that “nation of two” that Kurt Vonnegut described in “Mother Night.”
It’s a form of myopia, the young couple in “10,000 KM (Kilometers)” figure out. One can’t quite focus on both of the other’s dreamy eyes at once. And there’s certainly no room for anybody else in their intense and narrow field of vision.
Alex (Natalia Tena) is a British-born photography student who only has eyes for musician Sergi (David Verdaguer). Their love-making in their Barcelona apartment has passion and purpose, with pillow talk about planning a pregnancy.
Then Alex gets an email. A grant has come through that will allow her to study and photograph Los Angeles. And after a bit of bickering — “I don’t WANT an American baby,” she sniffs (in Spanish, with English subtitles) — they decide she should go there.
“We’re strong,” Sergi purrs. They can make it nine months. He’s forgotten his reassurances that “all the other women” from his life are in the past. But has she?
That’s just the 24 minute prologue to Carlos Marques-Marcet’s film, a two-hander that limits itself to these two people, their two apartments, Skype conversations, Facebook updates and Google Earth streetviews to show a couple separated by an ocean and a continent, and growing worlds apart over the course of several months.
It’s a simple, cheap and limited concept beautifully executed. The players, especially Tena, tell us the story with their faces. As Alex’s spare, white and cheap apartment in Los Angeles grows more colorful with Ikea decor and walls covered with her photos, Sergi — struggling to get certified as a music teacher — starts to feel abandoned.
Cute touches include her conceptual photo project — capturing the ways American technology camouflages itself — cell-towers designed to look like trees — him teaching her to make their favorite dish by Skype.
But Verdaguer and Tena let us see the pain, the longing and the guilt. All the technology in the world may let us think long distance romances, at long last, can work. But every unidentified “friend” in a group Facebook photo, every “Where WERE you? You were supposed to call?” reminds Alex and Sergi, and us, that absence doesn’t just make the heart grow fonder. It lets it wander.

MPAA Rating:  R for some strong sexual content including dialogue, language and brief graphic nudity

Cast: Natalia Tena, David Verdaguer
Credits: Directed by Carlos Marques-Marcet, script by Carlos Marques-Marcet, Clara Roquet
Natalia Tena and David Verdaguer. A Broad Green release.

Running time: 1:43