the success of “The Story of Souleymane” exceeds all expectations

Boris Lojkine's film, which follows an undocumented Guinean deliveryman in a hostile Paris, is enjoying good attendance. Five weeks after its release, it has already been seen by 450,000 spectators. Very good news.

«C‘is a miracle”, rejoices Éric Lagesse, president of Pyramide, the house that distributes The Story of Souleymane in theaters in France since October 9, 2024. The film was widely noticed last May at the Cannes Film Festival, selected in the Un Certain Regard category – with, at stake, the male performance prize for the main actor , Abou Sangare, undocumented Guinean.

This “miracle” has already attracted more than 450,000 spectators, five weeks after its release. After reading the script, which shocked him, Éric Lagesse did not expect such success. As a connoisseur, he knew that the film would attract the usual « public TeleramaCSP +, attracted by arthouse films »or between 50 and 60,000 spectators, as for the previous films by director Boris Lojkine, Hope et Camille. But this realistic story in the form of a thriller, about a bicycle meal delivery man, who feverishly prepares for a decisive interview at Ofpra (French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons) to obtain papers, has surpassed all expectations. hopes. “The mobilization of spectators is much more general, particularly among young people,” rejoices the distributor. Indeed, last Thursday, at the UGC Ciné Cité des Halles in Paris, the room was full of young people, breathless after the film and this unforgettable scene between Abou Sangare (Souleymane) and the actress Nina Meurisse, as a civil servant familiar with the stories of asylum seekers learned by heart.

The success of The Story of Souleymane is good “a miracle”, at a time when European states are getting tougher on the subject of immigration, our Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, considering that« [elle] is not an opportunity for France.