“Souleymane’s Story,” directed with finesse by Boris Lojkine and written by Lojkine and Delphine Agut, has won almost every imaginable film award in France, from “Un Certain Regard” at Cannes in 2024 to the awards presented to Abou Sangare (Souleymane), including the César (the French Oscar) for Best Male Revelation; the International Cinephile Society Award for Best Actor and Best Breakthrough Performance; the Lumiere (the French Golden Globe) for Best Actor and the Best Performance Award at Cannes. It is the story of the struggles a hard working immigrant faces when trying to make the leap from temporary asylum to legal status. This all too familiar story is elevated by the deeply moving performance of Sangare, reason enough to see this film.
“Souleymane’s Story” is the tale of an African from Guinea making his way through the French system of asylum, navigating the streets of Paris on his bicycle as a food delivery person. Unable to work legally, he “rents” the work permit of another man hoping that the invisibility of his race and the lowly status of marginal freelancers plying their trade on bicycles will help him avoid arrest. Sleeping in official shelters, his life is a solitary one. Dependent on the kindness of others, mainly he finds bottom feeders who gleefully take advantage of his status and desperation.
In two days’ time, he will be faced with his official interview at the Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra) to determine whether his application for asylum has enough merit to grant him the right to stay and work legally in France. He has been dealing with a so-called expert to fashion a story that will impress the Ofpra interviewer. Although prepped with papers and membership cards from Guinea to “prove” that his political activities put his life in danger, he cannot get his head around this false narrative. It is not his story, but Barry, his tutor, insists that it is exactly what Ofpra wants to hear. Barry, like so many others in his life, extorts him for money and withholds the papers he will need to present for his interview unless he pays what he agreed. The dilemma Souleyman faces is many-fold, all related to the money he doesn’t have and the story he cannot tell.
Lojkine tells this story at a rapid pace. The camera follows Soulyeman as he navigates his bike through the streets of Paris, creating a telling juxtaposition between the wealth and beauty of the city of lights and the desperation and dangers Souleyman and others like him face every evening. Soulyemane must avoid cars that don’t see him, restaurateurs who delay his orders, clients to whom he is invisible and the holder of his work permit who extorts a huge percentage of his earnings, when he pays him at all. What must his life have been for him to brave all these hazards? In many ways, that is beside the point. His need and desperation, regardless of source, is the point. Souleyman longs for a better life and even the roadblocks he encounters in Paris are worth it to him.
Last year’s Academy Award nominee for Best International Film, “Io Captitano,” told the story of the Homeric journey of two boys from Senegal trying to make it to Italy for a better life. But that was a story of the journey not the aftermath. Although it is not until the end that Souleyman recounts the frighteningly similar journey that took him from Guinea to France, his willingness to forge this path is, in itself, a tribute to his effort to find a better life, regardless of his previous circumstances. Is the lack of a future enough reason to risk everything for more hope even if it is only incremental?
The narrative of “Souleyman’s Story” was gleaned from countless interviews with food delivery workers who revealed the myriad problems they faced with customers, scam artists viewing them as easy targets and housing difficulties. This is a picture of men, for it is primarily men, in isolation without allies or support who were single mindedly focused on obtaining the papers that would allow them to work legally and give them a social safety net that would change their lives. What, you should ask yourself, would you do under similar circumstances?
Without the amazing Abou Sangare who played Souleyman, it is doubtful the film would have been as effective as it is. Sangare, in his first role, is a revelation. His eyes, deep and mournful, his body language fluid and yet awkward and tense, all contribute to the portrait of a man in pain, willing to face any danger or insult to achieve a final goal, one that is so little understood by those who take for granted what he longs for. Sangare’s demeanor reflects the conflict this good man faces when seemingly forced to lie and hide who he is. His depth of emotion, silently imparted, is extraordinary. The question he asks, simultaneously asked of the audience, is: is it worth it? Does he gain more than he loses? Are the sacrifices he must make worthy of the self esteem he must relinquish? Lojkine gives us no answers, just endless questions.
Surely Sangare, a mechanic discovered by Lojkine in an open casting call, lived this life. Now 23, he was a minor when he left Guinea in 2015 and arrived in Amiens, a city in the north of France. His performance in this film has opened up new avenues for him and he surely has a bright future in films. At the very least, the accolades he has won have finally resulted in an invitation to reapply for legal residency, something that, up until now, had been denied him three times. Moved by the film, his fourth and most recent application was at the urging of the Government.
Although many filmmakers have reached out to him, Sangare’s goal is to work as a mechanic at the garage that has tried repeatedly to hire him in the past. Perhaps it’s time for a bigger dream.
In French with English subtitles.
Opening August 8 at the Laemmle Royal.
