After making documentaries on Vietnam where he stayed between 2001 and 2005, Boris Lojkine, a normal student and professor of philosophy, moved to Africa where he made his first fiction feature film, Hopein 2014, then a second, Camillefor which he won the Audience Award at the 2019 Locarno International Film Festival. At the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, The Story of Souleymane received the jury prize in the Un Certain Regard section as well as the best actor prize for Abou Sangare in the role of Souleymane. It is the story of the latter that is told to us in the film, that of a young Guinean immigrant working as a deliveryman while waiting to obtain his French papers. The story is compressed into two dense days during which we follow Souleymane in his adventures by bike through the streets of Paris, pedaling, delivering, running to catch up with a bus or the metro so as not to arrive late at the home where he is staying. temporarily.
The camera is constantly moving, as close as possible to the actor, who is in each shot, each sequence, so much so that we are carried away with him as if in a stormy breeze sweeping the city. As Souleymane does not yet have French nationality, he is obliged to rent an account with another delivery person in order to work, which is not without certain disadvantages, in particular that of not being paid when the holder considers that Souleymane is responsible for closing her account following a dissatisfied customer. Indeed, by driving at full speed to deliver his order on time, he is the victim of an accident and hits a car at an intersection. But he gets up and gets back on the road. It is fascinating to realize the tenacity that Souleymane demonstrates in a constant struggle not to fall. Falling into despair, weariness and literally falling from fatigue.
The camera is constantly moving, as close as possible to the actor, who is in each shot, each sequence, so much so that we are carried away with him as if in a stormy breeze sweeping the city.
The main thread of the film is the asylum application interview with OFPRA that Souleymane must pass, which worries him, who cannot disentangle himself from the story he is supposed to tell and which is told to him by the representative of a dubious refugee association, who demands money in exchange for false documents. That of a political opponent responsible for security arrested by the police, imprisoned and tortured by the latter. The names, places, precise dates that he must deliver, like so much detailed information intended to convince his interlocutor, run through his head and sometimes get confused between them. It asks questions about the circumstances and particularities of a story that appears a priori built from scratch. Because what do we really know about Souleymane and his story? By following him so closely and being constantly with him, we have the impression of knowing him better than anyone. And yet, we will only know at the end of the film what pushed Souleymane to leave his country for France. And if it was just to have a better future, who could blame him? The fiction is overtaken by the reality of a large part of the French population who no longer want their immigrants, stigmatized as the troublemakers of our country, as the barbarians who would invade our civilization.
What we know is that the life of an immigrant refugee in France is not easy, far from the clichés about welfare and the benevolence granted by the French state which are sometimes current. Mutual aid within the population of African origin, even if they maintain a certain form of camaraderie on a daily basis, is not always appropriate. Souleymane himself, meeting refugees who had just arrived in the territory, responded to their request with a dismissal, not having time to deal with their problem, already having a lot to do for himself. Because, by leaving his country, he had to separate from his fiancée with whom he maintains a long-distance relationship via cell phone. She is about to get involved with someone else, an engineer at that – hope of a better life, too – and asks Souleymane for his opinion. And we measure Souleymane’s desire and desire to settle in France by the sacrifice he makes of his love for Kadiatou. The film, gripping and breathtaking like a realistic thriller, well deserved its prize. And Abou Sangaré, a non-professional actor whose life partially inspired the screenplay, his own, as he demonstrates a breathtaking natural charisma, illuminating the film with his physical and moral beauty. A serious film which brings us back to desperate news when we witness live the far-right speech and measures ready to be taken by our government in terms of immigration.
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