An Impossible Love is a 2018 French romantic drama film co-written and directed by Catherine Corsini, based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Christine Angot. Starring Virginie Efira, Niels Schneider and Jehnny Beth, the film chronicles the life of office worker Rachel as she falls in love with the wealthy Philippe, gives birth to their daughter Chantal, and raises Chantal as a single mother while maintaining a complicated relationship with Philippe.

Plot

In the late 1950s in Châteauroux, France, Rachel, a modest office worker, meets Philippe, a brilliant young man born to a bourgeois family. This brief but passionate connection results in the birth of a daughter, Chantal. Philippe refuses to marry outside of his social class and Rachel has to raise their daughter alone. Regardless, Chantal is a great source of happiness for Rachel. She wishes for Philippe to legally acknowledge his daughter, which would give her his last name. A battle of more than ten years ensues, which will eventually break up all of their lives.