Un amour impossible
Empathy-arousing French adaptation of Christine Angot’s bestseller in which Rachel can’t seem to escape her doomed love affair.
134'
France
IFFR 2019
72 hours before French bodybuilder Lea Pearl is due to take part in an international competition, she is staying with her severe trainer in a conference hotel attached to the tournament. All the rooms are occupied by highly trained athletes and their entourages. They hunger and thirst for eternal glory. Lea Pearl has been reduced to her body: she is no longer a woman, or a lover – let alone a mother. Until her ex-boyfriend unexpectedly turns up at the hotel, with their six-year-old son; a child she hasn’t seen for years.
In her debut feature, director Elsa Amiel shows a wondrous, navel-gazing world that brooks no distractions. Visually, she makes the best possible use of the exceptional, chiselled bodies and the dull, soullessly decorated conference rooms and anonymous hotel rooms that are all about presentation. But this psychological drama also shows moments of heart-breaking fragility between the child and the sportswoman who doesn’t want to – and can’t – be a mother.
IFFR 2019
Programme IFFR 2019
Avant-premieres of some of the cinematic highlights of the year: international award-winners and festival favourites which will be released in Dutch cinemas after IFFR.
Read more about this programmeEmpathy-arousing French adaptation of Christine Angot’s bestseller in which Rachel can’t seem to escape her doomed love affair.
134'
France
IFFR 2019
Adaptation of war reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski’s most famous book mixes hyper-realistic animation, documentary, hallucinatory impressions and literary soul searching.
86'
Poland
IFFR 2019
In this gender-flipped Vertigo set in Japan, Asako’s encounter with her ex-lover’s lookalike sees her confronting the messiness of love.
119'
Japan
IFFR 2019