There Is No Love Without Stories(1998)

There Is No Love Without Stories is a French film about Monique, a single mother and taxi driver raising her son Olivier in northern France. Olivier struggles with his family situation and invents elaborate lies about his absent father—first claiming he's dead, then a spy with a boat—to impress his schoolmate Julien. When Julien questions him about his mother, Olivier's stories grow more creative. At a supermarket encounter with a model who gives him a friendly kiss on the cheek, Olivier seizes the moment to deceive Julien into believing she's his mother. The film explores childhood imagination, the gap between reality and fantasy, and how young people navigate shame and longing through storytelling.