There is no shortage of films on the long-running topic of migration, and at first glance “Souleyman's Story” doesn't necessarily contribute anything significantly new. What is remarkable here is not so much what is told, but rather how it is told. The film is about Souleymane (Abou Sangare), who works as a bicycle courier to deliver food without residence documents and not only has to contend with Parisian traffic and moody customers, but also with exploitation by his own migrant community.
As if that weren't enough, a hearing awaits him where his asylum application will be decided and for which he has to memorize a made-up biography. Pressure and stress on all fronts – and Boris Lojkine's great achievement is to make this stress tangible with a precise production. So you can feel the pressure with which people are shaped by an inhumane system, at least for an hour and a half.
Souleymane (Abou Sangare) spends every free minute memorizing a made-up biography in order to have a chance at the upcoming asylum appointment.
Souleymane (Abou Sangare), a native of Guinea, left everything behind in his homeland, even his fiancée, to go to Europe for a better life. In Paris he works as a bicycle delivery person for a delivery service, even though he is actually not allowed to work during his asylum procedure. That's why he only gets a small part of the actual salary for his services, because the required driver account in the delivery app is expensively “borrowed” from someone with the necessary documents.
So Souleymane rushes through the busy city all day to bring bad-tempered customers their food on time. In the evening he has to make sure he catches the last bus to his emergency shelter, otherwise he'll face a night out in the open. At the same time, the refugee is preparing for his hearing at the office – someone from his migrant circle of acquaintances has provided him with a made-up biography and corresponding papers, but he wants to see money for his services and is therefore putting additional pressure on him…
On the very fringes of society
“Souleyman's Story” (the protagonist's actual name is Souleymane, but the German title saves the “e”) begins 48 hours before the all-important hearing and delves deep into the protagonist's world and thus not only into the world of paperless immigrants, but also into the dark side of food delivery services. These have repeatedly made headlines in recent years due to the lousy working conditions, but rarely have we seen so clearly what it really means to rush across the city for a few cents.
Souleymane's everyday life is a complete race against time, his existence is built on sand, even a banality like a missed bus can have existential consequences. It's staged like a thriller, dynamic and fast-paced, the camera is constantly glued to the person being rushed, and the protagonist's constant tension is inevitably transmitted to the audience.
Souleymane (Abou Sangare) only has a place to sleep if he catches the last bus.
Souleymane remains friendly even in the most hectic times, even offering to cut the food that was delivered to an elderly customer. He is a sincere person with a big heart who releases his fiancée so that the woman who stays at home can start an economically secure future with an engineer who is vying for her. Souleymane has a hard time memorizing the made-up biography – he is not a person who lies easily, which leads to an impressively acted “showdown” at the office. There he finally tells his true story, which is even more dramatic than the fictional version, but probably not the right one for a residence permit. But instead of presenting us with a result in one direction or the other, “Souleyman's Story” indirectly passes the decision on to the audience.
For Abou Sangare, the leading actor who won an award at Cannes, there was a provisionally happy ending: the film helped ensure that Sangare, who came to France seven years before the casting, received a one-year work permit. Surprisingly, the 24-year-old, whose personal escape story was incorporated into the script, does not plan to continue his successfully launched acting career, but would rather become a car mechanic. That's a shame. Sangare, who had no previous acting experience, plays a key role in making the film work so well with an authentic performance that doesn't require any major gestures, even in highly emotional scenes, but still makes what's going on inside him tangible at all times. You can quickly empathize with Souleymane, an “asylum fraudster” who is particularly popular in the tabloid media as a bogeyman – which only makes the ending seem all the more haunting.
Conclusion: Another film on the subject of migration – but what a film: “Souleyman's Story” makes the daily struggle for survival of a paperless migrant intensely relatable as a perfectly staged and to the point played social drama that feels like a thriller for long stretches.