Based on the acclaimed novel by Christine Angot.

In 1958 in Châteauroux in central France, 25-year-old Rachel works as a typist. In the office canteen she meets Philippe, a romantic young intellectual from a wealthy family, and the couple embark on a passionate relationship. Rachel eventually gives birth to a daughter, Chantal, but Philippe refuses to marry her or allow his daughter to bear his family name.

Over the decades that follow, Rachel remains in love with Philippe, while building a career and raising her daughter alone. When the adolescent Chantal starts growing closer to her father, the darker side of Philippe’s nature emerges.

Touted as a “brilliantly dark and tender family drama,” by The Guardian, An Impossible Love meditates on all forms of love—familial, romantic, functional—and their messy intersections.

-Note adapted from the BFI London Film Festival