Souleymane’s Story
Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story world premiered at the Un Certain Regard section of the 2024 Cannes Film Fest, where it won the Jury Prize and the Performance Prize, and the FIPRESCI Prize for the Un Certain Regard section.
It received limited theatrical release in the U.S. in 2025.
Grade: B+ (**** out of *****)
This Paris-set drama is adds to the canon of migration cinema, with its portrait of Abou Sangaré’s Guinean bicycle courier as he works hand to mouth and hatches a story to claim asylum.
Directed by Boris Lojkine from a script he wrote with Delphine Agut, the film stars Abou Sangaré as Souleymane, an immigrant from Guinea working for a food delivery service in Paris.
Souleymane is depicted as he prepares for his asylum application interview while working for a meal delivery service on his e-bike.
We get the notion of the exploitation of the ‘sans papiers’ (without papers) by fellow Africans. One fellow immigrant from northern Guinea lazily coaches asylum applicants to recite false stories of political persecution at their hearings in return for payment,.
Another one lends Souleymane a food delivery account but then takes half of his earnings every week.
While developing the film, Lojkine and casting director Aline Dalbis consulted with food delivery workers to learn about the challenges they faced and got to know members of the city’s Guinean immigrant community. The film’s star, Abou Sangaré, was identified during an open casting call.
Sangaré had immigrated to France 7 years prior to casting, while still teenager, and his personal story was incorporated into the narrative. He works as a heavy truck mechanic in Amiens, and it was this acting role that helped Sangaré secure permanent residency in France.
For authentic realism, scenes in which Souleymane delivered food on his bicycle were shot by a cameraman riding a bicycle alongside the actor.
To write the final interview scene, the filmmakers gathered input from Guinean asylum seekers and sat in on interviews conducted by Ofpra (the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons).
Cast
Abou Sangaré as Souleymane
Nina Meurisse as the OFPRA agent
Alpha Oumar Sow as Barry
Emmanuel Yovanie as Emmanuel
Younoussa Diallo as Khalil
Ghislain Mahan as Ghislain
Mamadou Barry as Mamadou
Yaya Diallo as Yaya
Keita Diallo as Kadiatou
