Impossible Things
Detailed parental analysis
Cosas imposibles is an intimate drama with a bittersweet atmosphere, rooted in contemporary Mexican social reality. The plot follows an unlikely encounter between an elderly woman marked by years of domestic violence and a 19-year-old young man surviving on the margins of society, two solitudes that gradually become accustomed to one another. The film is primarily aimed at a mature teenage and adult audience, sensitive to narratives of personal reconstruction.
Parental and Family Portrayals
The marital relationship lies at the heart of the film in its most toxic form: Matilde's deceased husband is a violent and contemptuous man whose grip has not been extinguished by his death. He reappears in the form of hallucinations that humiliate and paralyse the heroine, illustrating with accuracy the duration of trauma well beyond the physical relationship. The film demonstrates that domestic violence leaves deep and lasting psychological traces, making it a serious subject to prepare for before watching with a teenager.
Underlying Values
The narrative is structured around the possibility of rebuilding oneself, even late in life and under unfavourable circumstances. Intergenerational friendship is presented as a lever for authentic healing, without idealisation or easy sentimentality. The film quietly but firmly defends the idea that a woman can free herself from the grip of a violent man, even when that man is no longer physically present. These values are carried with consistency throughout the narrative and form its moral backbone.
Substances
Miguel, the 19-year-old protagonist, is a drug dealer: it is his means of subsistence and a constitutive element of his social identity at the beginning of the film. Drug dealing is neither glorified nor condemned in a moralising manner; it is presented as a reality of survival in a context of economic marginalisation. This is a point to address with a teenager, particularly to distinguish narrative understanding of a character from validation of his choices.
Violence
Past domestic violence is evoked verbally and through Matilde's hallucinations, without graphic reconstruction of the events. The impact is nevertheless strong on an emotional level: scenes in which the deceased husband appears to humiliate his wife can be distressing, particularly for viewers who have themselves been exposed to situations of family violence. Violence here is not spectacular but psychological, which makes it all the more realistic and potentially disturbing.
Strengths
The film succeeds at what is difficult to sustain: a friendship between two characters opposed in every way, made credible by writing that takes time for observation. The representation of post-domestic violence trauma, notably through the device of hallucinations, is treated with a psychological precision rare in mainstream cinema. The narrative avoids overly neat resolutions and leaves real space for ambivalence, which gives it an appreciable emotional honesty. For a teenager old enough to receive it, the film offers a concrete and non-didactic entry point into subjects such as gender-based violence, social marginalisation and resilience.
Age recommendation and discussion points
The film is not recommended before the age of 15 due to the nature of the trauma represented and the presence of a drug dealer character; it is fully suitable from age 15 onwards for an accompanied teenager. Two angles of discussion merit being opened after viewing: why can a man's violence continue to inhabit a woman long after his disappearance, and to what extent do the life circumstances of a young person like Miguel explain his choices without necessarily justifying them.
Synopsis
After the death of her abusive husband, Matilde finds her new best friend in Miguel, her young, insecure, and disoriented neighbor.
About this title
- Format
- Feature film
- Year
- 2021
- Runtime
- 1h 28m
- Countries
- Mexico
- Original language
- ES
- Directed by
- Ernesto Contreras
- Main cast
- Nora Velázquez, Benny Emmanuel, Luisa Huertas, Salvador Garcini, Andrés Delgado, Gabriela Cartol, Juan Carlos Medellin, Ari Gallegos, Pablo Marín, Héctor Holten
- Studios
- Agencia SHA, Alebrije Producciones, Videocine, Estudios Churubusco Azteca
Content barometer
- Violence2/5Moderate
- Fear3/5Notable tension
- Sexuality0/5None
- Language1/5Mild
- Narrative complexity2/5Moderate
- Adult themes2/5Present
Watch-outs
- Drugs
- Abuse
- Adult themes
Values conveyed
- Friendship
- Acceptance of difference
- Compassion
- Autonomy
- resilience
- empathy
- healing