Souleymane’s Story
In Boris Lojkine’s profoundly humane, Paris-set drama, an asylum seeker from Guinea struggles to prepare for a decisive interview.
Image courtesy of Conic.
Making his debut in the lead role of Souleymane, Abou Sangaré has won no less than eight awards and they are well deserved. Souleymane’s Story has gained numerous other awards too including ones for best direction and best editing, but in those areas I was less satisfied. For me this is a film that undermines its huge potential by rushing in too quickly at the outset. Only later does one come to recognise just how splendid the best aspects of it are. In addition to Sangaré’s performance being wonderful, the film is also memorable for its deep humanity. Indeed, the impact that this film achieves ultimately makes it one of the most telling films yet to appear portraying the migrant experience. Nevertheless, many audiences will find that getting into it is initially a challenging experience.
Souleymane's Story is set in Paris and as photographed by Tristan Galand the city provides a vivid backdrop. Screen centre is Souleymane himself, a migrant from Guinea who is first seen queuing up to get in for an official interview which is vital to him. It will result in a decision being taken as to whether or not his background is such that he qualifies for asylum in France. The opening of the film is in fact a preview of what is to come since we will return to it and the interview handled by an agent of L’OFRPA (Nina Meurisse) will become the climax to the film. But for now, we go back a couple of days to show how Souleymane is getting by as an undocumented worker who does gig work using his bike to carry out food deliveries. His is a desperate lifestyle since his boss, Emmanuel (Emmanuel Yovanie), is very difficult both pressurising him over the number of deliveries he makes and ready to delay when it comes to paying him. At night Souleymane can usually sleep in a shelter alongside other immigrants, but that can be jeopardised if he should fail to catch the evening coach that collects them. In addition, he is relying on Barry (Alpha Oumar Sow) to get together the papers that he will need to bring with him to the interview. This fixer is advising him to concoct a suitably harrowing story about being imprisoned in Guinea suggesting that this is the only way to ensure that his application will be approved. For this assistance he is having to pay Barry who is ready to withhold the documents should his charges not be fully met.
With an apt length of no more than ninety minutes Souleymane’s Story invites the viewer to experience life from Souleymane’s perspective. That's certainly the right approach, but Boris Lojkine (co-author of the screenplay as well as being the director here) seeks to illustrate very forcefully the pressure that dominates Souleymane’s life and this creates problems. Immediately the film starts to depict his daily routine, it takes on a hectic tone. Some critics appear to have found this effective regarding it as a move which gives the film the edge and tension of a thriller. If this device just put us in Souleymane's shoes that would be fine, but instead it has created a film which puts a burden of its own on the viewer. Once past the prologue we are into scenes of Souleymane on his bike driving around Paris, but what we immediately hear without explanation are the words that he is trying to memorise to win sympathy at the interview. These phrases are repeated again and again while very short scenes, many of which are shot with a hand-held camera, show the various facets of his delivery work. This includes dialogue when he exchanges comments with other workers or friends but the words are delivered at speed and we can hardly take it all in before the fast editing has moved us on to another location. Trying to keep up and take it all in feels more like a challenge for the audience than a powerful dramatic representation of what Souleymane is experiencing.
But, if the film gets off on the wrong foot, it has the advantage that from its very first moments onwards we are aware that Abou Sangaré is not only able to play the key role in a wholly naturalistic and persuasive way but that he is also somebody whose presence and personality immediately engage us. What then follows contains no conscious contrivances to gain our sympathy and never sinks into sentimentality. Instead, we identify with a patently decent man having come to understand the difficulties of his situation in Paris and having learnt something of his aged mother back in Guinea and of the young woman also there who may now be facing a life without him. As the film goes on, one comes to recognise more clearly the factors affecting Souleymane even if the pace chosen does not really let up very much until the last quarter of the film. It’s there that we have two episodes which rightly take their time. One is a phone connection with the girl in Guinea, Kadiatou (Dalo Keita), during which we see her for the first time and the other is the interview which provides the film’s climax. In this final section we wait to see whether the basically truthful Souleymane will accept or reject the advice that he has been given to build up his background story. Lojkine’s film is at its most involving here retaining its realistic tone and continuing to eschew any music score.
More often than not a film which initially strikes me as being misjudged would not end up with my giving it a rating of four stars. But the final impact here is so strong that Souleymane's Story becomes the exception to the rule. Even if you share the problems which I had with the early scenes, I would expect that by the film’s close you will feel that it was well worth the effort of adjusting. It would be a pity to miss this profoundly humane work and to lose the chance to appreciate what must be one of the year’s best performances, that by Abou Sangaré.
Original title: L’histoire de Souleymane.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Abou Sangaré, Alpha Oumar Sow, Nina Meurisse, Emmanuel Yovanie, Younoussa Diallo, Mamadou Barry, Dalo Keita, Ghislain Mahan, Yaya Diallo, Amadou Bah, Roger Bernard, Boris Lojkine.
Dir Boris Lojkine, Pro Bruno Nahon, Screenplay Boris Ljkine and Delphine Agut, Ph Tristan Galand, Pro Des Géraldine Stivet, Ed Xavier Sirven, Costumes Marine Peyraud.
Unité/Canal +/Cine+/Indéfilms 12/CNC-Conic.
90 mins. France. 2024. US Rel: 8 August 2025. UK Rel: 17 October 2025. Cert. 12A.
