Souleyman’s Story
A young man from Guinea struggles to earn a living delivering food on a bicycle through the streets of Paris while trying to learn a story about political oppression for his immigration interview coming up in two days. But, as we will learn, it is not "Souleyman's Story."
Laura's Review: B+
Cowriter (with Delphine Agut, "Inshallah a Boy")/director Boris Lojkine won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize and Guinean migrant Abou Sangare won the Un Certain Regard Best Actor award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival for this docudrama about the harsh realities facing those seeking a better life away from their home country. The film is reminiscent of Sean Baker's first film with Shih-Ching Tsou, 2004's "Take Out," but Lojkine's asks us to consider more than just his protagonist's obstacles, his eventual truth asking us to reconsider just who deserves a chance.
Cinematographer Tristan Galand keeps us with Souleymane as he weaves through traffic and negotiates with both customers and restauranteurs, thankfully without the manic look of a handheld camera. Barry (Alpha Oumar Sow), the man who's coaching him on his asylum story, is demanding payment and withholding necessary documents until he gets it. The man who is taking care of Souleyman's sick mother back home is more concerned about having more phone units purchased for him than providing updates on her health. A pizza shop frustrates delivery men by making them wait twenty minutes during their peak time. Souleyman takes a tumble when he's nicked by a car and the woman he is delivering to refuses to take her order because the bag is crumpled, an episode which blocks the code he's been paying another migrant, Emmanuel (Emmanuel Yovanie), to use. Emmanuel not only refuses to give Souleyman the money he's owed, but pushes him down the stairs. And when two newly arrived men from the Ivory Coast ask Souleymane for help getting a delivery job, he turns them away, but not unkindly.
Abou Sangare conveys Souleymane's determination and outrage, but also his innate decency and compassion. The actor has us on Souleymane's side from the first time we see him, but he will break our hearts twice. A second call with someone from home reveals a young woman telling him that a local engineer has asked for her to marry him. At first, we think perhaps this is a sister, then realize this is Souleymane's own girlfriend, and that he is letting her go for her own benefit, his situation too impossible to continue to hold onto her. The second time will be when the story of Souleymane we've been watching turns into the one he tells his immigration officer (Nina Meurisse), the powerful scene which ends the film and could stand on its own as a short. Meurisse makes a make here as well, the woman prodding and poking a suspicious story also clearly moved by the man in front of her.
One would have to be heartless to come away unmoved by "Souleymane's Story," but is disheartening to see how many films have been made about the immigrant experience and yet the pushback, both in Europe and the U.S., continues.
Robin's Review: B
Souleymane (Abou Sangare) is a bicycle delivery man running the roads of Paris at night. He has just two days before his all-important security interview to see if he can gain legal residency in France. But, he needs a plausible story and, more important, money to live his dream in “Souleymane’s Story.”
Director, and co-writer with Delphine Agut, Boris Loikine brings us a slice of immigrant life as the title character works long hours, trying to save money even while sending cash home to his mother. He is being coached, for his immigration interview, by an entrepreneur named Barry (Alpha Oumar (Sow) who keeps demanding money for the documents Souleymane needs.
Then, there is his job. Since he does not have documentation admitting him into France, he has to pay to use another’s immigrant work ID. And, even the slightest infraction with a delivery can result in refusal to get paid and the chance of exposure and deportation. Abou Sangare shoulders the burden of his character convincingly in what is essentially a one-man show.
There is a sense of quiet desperation for Souleymane as he copes with all of the above and the demands put upon him by his family left behind in Guinea. During all of this, with his time spent eking out a living, he has the interview looming hard over him. You can feel how Souleymane feels in a palpable way as he evokes sympathy to his plight.
We have an in-depth look at an immigration system that grows more and more distant from our own current medieval methods every day. At least for Souleymane there is some hope, in the guise of the lady immigration officer, who sees through his ill-prepared “story” and his real story comes out.
This is a modern tale of hard work, despair, helplessness and hope. Souleymane gets to you with his honesty and trying to do the right thing, even while working on the fringes of illegality and possible deportation. But maybe, just maybe, the system will do the right thing for the young man. My fingers are crossed for him.
Kino Lorber releases "Souleyman's Story" in select theaters on 8/1/25. Click here for theaters and play dates.
