Life cycle: ‘Souleymane’s Story’ a Maddening, Thrilling Sprint Through Paris

“Souley from Paris!” That loose, friendly greeting comes early and often in Boris Lojkine’s tense pressure-cooker “Souleymane’s Story” (2024), but what’s initially an innocuous nickname called out to a colleague slowly descends into an inadvertent, cruel taunt. For Souleymane (a stunning Abou Sangaré, who won ‘Best Actor’ in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard segment), a Guinean transplant, the ties to his adopted homeland are tenuous and wobbly, suggesting an unsettled and mutually-destructive relationship. Paris here is antic and threatening, all buses, crowds and horns, a stark contrast to its more romantic, servile depiction in mainstream films. As a character, Paris is the villain, a cunning seductress making promises that its leaders can’t keep. Lojkine’s taut script paired with Cinematographer Tristan Galand’s raw and unwavering view of urban suffocation forge a credible hellscape, bound to swallow the gallant Souleymane, exhausting his ample reserves of pride and perseverance. 

A food delivery worker, Souleymane is on his bike for most of the day, and his precious downtime is spent learning and memorizing a fabricated story in preparation for an interview with an immigration officer (Nina Meurisse). That is, ostensibly, the story of the title, but Souleymane isn’t alone, for better and worse. He’s a cog in an unforgiving machine, and while he can find time to joke with friends and call back home to check in, Lojkine establishes early on that Souleymane’s chaotic journey won’t end with redemption. Just like Souleymane’s sleeping quarters—a shelter, if he’s lucky enough to catch the bus—his private life is confined and shrinking, at the mercy of and in service to an unreliable system of checks (the “protection officers”) and imbalances (Souleymane uses a friend’s selfie in order to work). 

Sidelining Dreams in Favor of Barriers

Lojkine bends the narrative arc towards inevitable injustice, and while that strategy may honor reality, it sidelines Souleymane’s agency—and this fictional character’s potential—in favor of a cascading series of bureaucratic and sociopolitical barriers designed to bury his ambition. The film’s dramatic peaks are gripping, but it lacks the offsetting valleys which could unveil or at a minimum hint at Souleymane’s dreams, to explain what Paris has offered him so far, or could give (instead of take from) him in a base scenario. Sangaré, who, like Souleymane is from Guinea, delivers more than a star turn: this is an electric, humane and, foremost, daring performance with heartbreaking links to reality. A nonprofessional actor, Sangaré arrived in France at age 16 and at the time of his casting, had yet to secure permanent residence despite applying several times and securing a full-time employment offer as a mechanic.

Sangaré’s story—and the film, which has been a breakout box office success internationally—has inspired furious debate for an already charged issue. And as a breathing document to a life-or-death macro tragedy, “Souleymane’s Story” has earned its plaudits, which also included the FIPRESCI Prize and Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes. In early sequences, it’s a propulsive, extended chase sequence, equal parts thrilling and relentless, borrowing from canonized city visions such as Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Diva” (1981) and the entire Safdie Brothers’ catalogue. It takes no time to heighten the stakes, and Galand’s on-the-ground photography is a vital asset that amplifies the film’s emotional volatility. 

Abou Sangaré Picks Up the Film’s Slack

Throughout the film, it’s natural to pound the table along with Lojkine, aghast at the risks and consequences of Souleymane’s work and future. But I found myself wishing for a side bar, where Souleymane can tell us what he wants us to know about himself, or what he’s looking for, should he have the luxury of slowing his life down from warp speed. The rare scenes that nod to his past—a phone call to his mom, a video call with an ex, the painful, nail-biting immigration interview—build Souleymane up into a vibrant, fully-formed and proactive character rather than a symbol presented to serve a larger story’s thesis. This is less a complaint than a testament to the film’s substance, so even if it falls short on character development, Sangaré picks up the slack, injecting additional fuel into a fiery dialogue that should inspire thoughtful, maddening art in response. 

Souleymane’s Story, a Kino Lorber release, opened in New York City on August 1st. A limited nationwide release continues throughout August and September.