SOULEYMANE’S STORY/ L’histoire de Souleymane, France, 2024. Starring Abou Sangare, Alpha Oumar Sow, Nina Meurisse, Emmanuel Yovanie. Directed by Boris Lojkine. 93 minutes. Rated M (Mature themes and coarse language).
Souleymane is one of many refugees coming to France from Africa, in particular from Guinea-Conakry. The audience spends two hectic days with him in Paris – the screenplay and the performance from Sangare instantly gripping us. For audiences who have had little to do with refugees and their difficulties in getting to a country, living without papers, trying to get access to documentation, and in the meanwhile trying to work, sometimes even to survive day by day, this film documents those challenges. Those who work with refugees and experience their struggles will immediately identify (and urge as many as possible to go to see the film, to learn and appreciate).
In fact, the film opens with Souleymane making an appointment for an interview to get his papers. However, he is at the mercy of other refugees who exploit the newcomers. There is Barry (Sow), a wheeler dealer, inventing stories for the interviewees, suggesting that they are members of an active political group in their own country, committed to causes (and with a list to help the interviewee remember what they were supposed to have done, the names of the people that they worked with, precise and dates and statistics, which Souleymane and others have difficulty in memorising). And Barry is demanding payment for the ‘help’.
Emmanuel (Yovanie) also exploits newcomers. He shares his permit card so that they can deliver food on their bikes through the busy city. We see how dangerous it is with accidents with cars, time demands, mean-minded and racist café managers, police enjoying taunting the refugees, and then Emmanuel demands 50% of Souleymane’s earnings.
There are time demands and constant pressures, hurrying to catch trains, connecting buses, missing connections and sleeping out, booking in advance a bed for the night in one of the many hostels, large rooms full of bunks, and lining up at the soup kitchens for something to eat and drink.
There is constant pressure on Souleymane, phone calls from a girlfriend from Guinea who is thinking of marrying, double dealings from Emmanuel, a fight and injury, trying to pin down Barry for coaching for the interview.
Thankfully interspersed are some moments of quiet. While most of the supporting characters here are refugees, many of them sympathetic to Souleymane, and some glimpses of French people who are kind.
And, finally, the interview itself. It’s tense, with Souleymane drawing on his coaching to answer the questions, the interviewer a sympathetic listener – but who has heard all this many times before. Souleymane eventually, haltingly, at the end, tell his story of home life, decision to leave home, travels, ill-treatment, his hopes.
As mentioned, the film is often hectic, handheld camera, running after and with Souleymane, speeding through the night city. At the end, the audience has to decide, along with the interviewer, whether Souleymane is telling a story that deserves refugee status and acceptance in France.
Palace
Released 25 June