Souleymane doesn’t have time for a street-side chat. A refugee from Guinea, he ekes out a living in Paris’ ultra-tough meal delivery business, pedalling from kitchen to customer without pause. He has to have his rented account verified in a ridiculous process and content himself with promises of future pay-outs. On the side, he rehearses a made-up story his contact man gave him for the asylum office, where he has a crucial interview coming up in a few days. How is he supposed to give credible answers about all of the details?! To make matters worse, on the eve of his appointment, he misses the night bus to his shelter way out on the periphery. THE STORY OF SOULEYMANE already caused quite a stir in Cannes, not least of which for its magnificent lead performance: truly, Abou Sangaré is simply breath-taking as a man on two wheels switching gears, caught between the gears of the system.

Boris Lojkine graduated in philosophy at École Normale Supérieure in Paris and left university after his thesis. He made two documentary films in Vietnam about the specific Vietnamese mourning process among men and women with war trauma. With HOPE, his first feature film, he then switched to Africa. The film was presented at the Critics’ Week in Cannes and received many awards in international festivals. Presented at the Cannes Festival 2024 in the “Un Certain Regard section”, THE STORY OF SOULEYMANE is his third feature film.

Filmography: 2001 CEUX QUI RESTENT, 2005 LES ÂMES ERRANTES, 2014 HOPE, 2019 CAMILLE, 2024 THE STORY OF SOULEYMANE

Awards (selection): Jury Award and Award for Best Performance in the section “Un Certain Regard” (Cannes International Film Festival, France 2024)