by Helen Barlow in Paris
When Guinean-born Abou Sangare appeared in Boris Lojkine’s The Story of Souleymane last year in Cannes, he became a sensation. He was not an actor, in fact he is a mechanic, yet he brought a kinetic energy to his undocumented food delivery worker, Souleymane, as he zoomed around the Parisian streets on his bicycle.
Sangare won for best actor in the Cannes Un Certain Regard section before winning for best actor in the European Film Awards (EFAs) and the French Lumieres. Tonight, The Story of Souleymane is up for best film, best direction and best screenplay in the Cesars, France’s version of the Oscars, while Sangare, now 23, has been nominated as best male newcomer, with Nina Meurisse also nominated for best supporting actress for her portrayal as the immigration officer.
Lojkine has long been interested in the topic of migration. “I made my first fiction film (2014’s Hope) about the journey of two African migrants on their way to Europe,” he explains in Paris, seated alongside Sangare. “Since then, I was looking for an opportunity to make another film about what happens to those migrants when they are here in Europe. When we experienced the lockdown because of COVID, it was very spectacular in the streets of Paris, because they were empty and the only people you could see were those delivery workers. They were all from Africa and most of them were undocumented. It was interesting to me that they are undocumented workers working in this new tech economy.”
In his screenplay, Lojkine incorporated the experience of Sangare and his struggle in getting a visa for France. Sangare was unable to travel to Switzerland for the European Film Awards [EFAs] in December — he accepted his award via video – because his visa didn’t come through until January.
“When you don’t have a document, you’re not visible,” Sangare says. “You are with the others, but you’re not there. There’s nothing you can do.
“I knew that the whole story was about this guy preparing his interview for his asylum request,” he continues. “He has two days to prepare it, and during these two days, the rhythm has to be extremely hectic and nervous. So, it was about going fast. I had been riding a bike since I was a kid, so I had no problem with that, but even if I was pedalling very fast, they would be behind me saying, ‘Faster, faster!’”
Still, Sangare wasn’t stressing. “I was just riding my bike, and I wouldn’t stop at any red light. I would just go on pedalling. But the guys behind me were stressing because they had to be careful not to have accidents and they had to be careful about everything.”
Incredibly, there were three bikes behind him, one with the cinematographer Tristan Galand, Lojkine was riding the sound bike and there was one with an assistant who helped with crowd control. The unusual means of filmmaking makes The Story of Souleymane an original, gripping film.
The first major task for Lojkine had been in casting his lead. Together with his casting director, Aline Dalbis, he contacted the Guinean community in Paris — the majority of food delivery workers hail from Guinea – and saw more than 200 people over two and a half months. But they had not found their man. So, they broadened their search to the north of France where many Guineans live. In Amiens, they found an NGO that helped them in coming up with 25 candidates. Sangare was working on an urgent car repair job at the time, and didn’t stay long. But they saw something in him and had him travel to Paris for a proper audition and he was ultimately cast a few weeks later.
The outgoing Sangare has a broad face, a great smile and is very handsome. “At one point, I was worried about that, and I was asking Aline if he was too handsome,” Lojkine recalls. There’s no doubting that Sangare has movie star appeal, even if he is not totally aware of it. “The camera loves him, and you cannot explain that,” Lojkine adds.
“I was a bit confused, because I didn’t know acting at all,” Sangare says of his casting. “I hadn’t taken this thing seriously. I didn’t imagine that it would just come up like this, and I didn’t know that being undocumented if I could afford being in a film and having a real job, but Boris reassured me. He told me that everything is legal, that I would have a contract, that I would have a pay slip, and I would really be able to work. And everything went from there as if I was on a jet. Everything went exactly as he said, and here I am now.”
Sangare had arrived in France in 2017. “I tried hard for seven years; I went through hell. Now, finally, thanks to this film, I have documents, but I’m the same Sangare, and when people ask me what I do for a living, I say what’s true is that I’m a mechanic. I’m a heavy truck mechanic.”
The most important thing for him in doing the film was to tell his personal story. “As soon as I met with Boris, he asked me what my journey was, why I left Guinea and why I came to Europe, and I told him my story. At the end of the film, that’s the story that’s told.” Lojkine says the visa interview was the most difficult for him to film.
Sangare had left Guinea at the age of 15 and a half to obtain medicine for his sick mother. “I had to cross the desert clandestine, first from Mali to Algeria, and then from Algeria to Libya, and then took a boat from Libya to Italy. It was extremely tough. I spent two weeks in a jail in Libya for no reason, just because they were asking me for money. I didn’t have it. All the people who come illegally from Africa to Europe go through hell.”
He arrived in France at the age of 16 and has lived there ever since. Does he miss Guinea?
“I don’t miss anything from my home country because I’ve spent so much time here,” he responds. “I’m more connected to what’s going on in France. Maybe the reason why I feel that way is because we were colonized by France and the language that I learned back home was French. What I like here is this feeling of being at home in the French language, and it’s also this social, collective aspect, the solidarity, the feeling that people care about each other. I haven’t been everywhere in France, but in Amiens, where I live, that’s how it is. People help each other. There are associations that care for each other, so this is something that’s precious.”
Lojkine says that the biggest chance for Sangare was not to make the film but to get his documents. “This is what really changed his life.”
The Story of Souleymane screens around the country as part of the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival, which starts 4 March 2025
