Souleymane's Story

Souleymane’s Story immerses us in an unrepresented world of African migrants in France with a ticking clock urgency that puts most thrillers to shame.

Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, an affecting film about struggle set over two days in Paris, is the rare character study that does not only build empathy with its hero’s pain but channels its sensation.

Needless to say, Souleymane’s Story is not an easy watch. It’s a tough, unsparing and often heartbreaking look at life for the migrants who make the online world tick, and a jolt for those of us who use it unthinkingly.

This is a nervy study of how poverty wears people down, eroded by uncertainty and the grinding effort to stay afloat.

Non-professional Sangare is magnetic throughout, whether on the saddle or an interview hot seat.

Souleymane’s Story presents its hero’s life as an open-air prison. Scrupulously researched by Lojkine and co-writer Delphine Agut, it’s brutally frank about the predatory practices of some of Souleymane’s fellow West Africans.

Sometimes Souleymane feels like he’s sprinting through a race with no finish line, and sometimes he’s running into an unmovable brick wall. The film exists in the space between those opposing outcomes, and its contradictions become its greatest strength as it depicts the endless exhaustion of navigating a system that doesn’t care about you nearly as much as it claims to.

A visceral, maximally stressful peek into two days in the life of an asylum seeker and Uber Eats courier.

Are there times when telling the truth is not necessarily the wisest course to follow in getting what you want? Some might say, somewhat self-righteously, never. However, for those faced with potentially problematic circumstances, that might not be the case. Such is the conundrum faced by Guinean immigrant Souleymane Sangaré (Abou Sangare), who relocates to France to escape the many hardships in his African homeland. He hopes to secure a permanent new home for himself by seeking asylum from Guinean political persecution, a designation that would earn him the protections of French authorities. There’s just one problem with his story: It’s not true. That’s not to suggest that he’s not fleeing many ordeals back home, but there’s no guarantee that they would qualify him to stay in France, no matter how problematic they might be. Hence the asylum ruse, a plan he seeks to perpetrate with the aid of Barry (Alpha Oumar Sow), an expensive (some would say extortionist) social worker/asylum broker playing on (and profiting from) Souleymane’s fears and desperation. Barry supplies his client (like many others with whom he “does business”) with phony asylum documents and an allegedly convincing personal story that he can tell to French authorities during an official interview with a government case worker (Nina Meurisse) to determine his eligibility. While preparing for his meeting with officials, Souleymane works (illegally) as a food delivery courier with the assistance of a shady associate, Emmanuel (Emmanuel Yovanie), who “rents” him fraudulent work credentials that allow him to earn money off the books, a scenario fraught with complications as he bicycles through the streets of Paris. Through this experience, viewers witness the many challenges that immigrants/asylum seekers face when trying to land a new home for themselves far away from their roots. These include numerous bureaucratic nightmares, unbridled prejudice, ubiquitous swindlers, and the frustration of being unable to do virtually anything in addressing difficulties back home, such as handling family health matters and coping with separation from loved ones like Souleymane’s fiancée (Keita Dalo). Writer-director Boris Lojkine’s latest feature outing tells an involving dramatic tale that captured three top honors at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, including the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, the Un Certain Regard Best Actor Award (Sangare) and the FIPRESCI Prize, among numerous other honors and nominations at other events and awards competitions. This is made possible in large part by the picture’s fine performances, as well as its atmospheric cinematography and skillful film editing, both of which show off sides of the City of Lights not often seen. There’s also a strong degree of authenticity pervading the narrative, bringing an insightful and profound level of credibility to the story. However, these assets aside, there are times when the film focuses a little too much on the setup preparation for the main event (the interview), along with a sometimes-excessive reliance on depictions of Souleymane’s workaday life, while sacrificing greater depth into the protagonist’s character development and back story. More emphasis in these key areas undoubtedly would have added more substance to the finished product, not only giving viewers a more complete picture of its lead, but also likely generating a deeper sense of empathy for his situation. As it stands now, “Souleymane’s Story” is certainly a solid offering, but, with some tweaking in these other regards, it could have elevated this release to the truly outstanding level that it might have otherwise attained.