SOULEYMANE'S STORY - Mark Reviews Movies

Souleymane's Story, Kino Lorber

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 31, 2025

The life of Souleymane (newcomer Abou Sangare) is one of various and constant hustles. He works as a delivery person, taking food orders on an app, riding a rented bike to restaurants, and navigating the crowded streets of Paris to get to customers. To get an order wrong or irritate a restaurant employee with a late order in any way is to risk losing the account.

Souleymane doesn't have a place to live, so he has a tight window to finish his work and get to the bus that nightly brings homeless people to a shelter they have reserved. To miss the bus, which heads out to the suburbs, is to lose a meal, a shower, and a bed for the night. It's winter now, and sleeping on the streets, which is already difficult enough, could be life-threatening in the cold.

Co-writer/director Boris Lojkine's Souleymane's Story adds one more complication to its protagonist's life, and it is, in a way, the one that defines the tension, desperation, and uncertainty of this man's existence. He is an immigrant from the Republic of Guinea, who has traveled through multiple countries, ventured across deserts and water, and left behind his old life and risked his future to get to France. Souleymane is seeking political asylum in this country, and as we quickly learn in this story, that amounts to several types of hustling on its own.

The screenplay, co-written by Delphine Agut, omits one key piece of information about its protagonist until the final scene of the story. That is why Souleymane has come to France in the first place. He has a story—one developed by Barry (Alpha Oumar Sow), a local man who helps migrants fashion a narrative that will appeal to the government officials who decide if an asylum claim should be accepted or rejected.

It is not, as far as we can tell, actually Souleymane's story. Watching this man in his day-to-day routine—doing all of this work, facing such constant fear and jeopardy, living without a guarantee of eating or sleeping indoors, knowing that a single wrong word or forgotten detail in his upcoming interview could ruin everything he has done so far—leaves us with only one question. Does the story matter, when the quality of the person and the determination to be a good, hard-working, and legitimate resident of a country are so self-evident?

A human life, of course, shouldn't be measured in terms of productivity and work hours for society, but even the most practical of people must see having someone like Souleymane in a country is of some, well, practical benefit. Lojkine's film is, on some level, a fascinating test of one's political, moral, and social beliefs. It puts forth an individual who is, on multiple fronts, an ideal member of society.

If Souleymane's story about being a political prisoner and escaping persecution were true, would anyone (except the most uncompassionate and xenophobic of people) question if he deserves to be an official resident of their country? At a certain point, the motive for immigration must be irrelevant, because it changes nothing about the character of that migrant.

Surprisingly, the film doesn't possess an overt political agenda or make a direct statement about immigration in France or in general, but it is, by its very nature, an inherently political piece. Lojkine's first priority is not to plead an argument or to assert a message. The filmmaker simply shows us life as it is for Souleymane and hope that, like the film itself, its audience will have some compassion for the man, what he wants, how much and hard he works to obtain it, and the simple fact that it could be a lot easier for him, save for the system in which he finds himself.

That system, as Barry points out on several occasions as he talks Souleymane through an invented narrative of his past, only cares about certain things. Souleymane had better have a very specific kind of story to tell government officials. He had better get all of the dates and details of the story correct, as well as be able to repeat them exactly on demand. Souleymane had also better be able to pay Barry for his services, because, as the implication is, he's offering the only chance someone like Souleymane has to legally stay in France.

Technically, Souleymane shouldn't be working in the country, because he isn't yet a legal resident and may never become one. That means his delivery gig depends on Emmanuel (Emmanuel Yovanie), who has rented his delivery account to Souleymane for a significant cut of the money he makes doing the actual work. The chances to exploit someone like Souleymane are widespread, and one of the unspoken but plain questions within the film is how much that extends to the restaurants and customers depending on unofficial workers like him. An economy based on getting everything and anything one could want quickly depends on people who must hustle in order to survive, after all.

The structure of the barebones plot reflects that, too. It is in a near-complete rush, as Souleymane rides a bike to and from assorted restaurants, and continually counting down a clock, whether that be our protagonist trying to fulfill as many food orders as possible before he has to get to the bus or the ticking away of days and hours until his asylum interview. The camera is always with Souleymane, almost trying to keep up with him as he speeds down streets, avoids traffic (or fails to do so), and rushes to doors or up stairs to make a delivery.

His only respite isn't much of one, either, since his time at the shelter is spent taking care of necessities, waking up early to reserve a bed for that night, and rehearsing his story for the interview. All the while, he also has to worry about his sick mother at home and Kadiatou (Keita Diallo), the woman he loves who wants to be with him but has received a marriage proposal from another man.

In simply presenting its main character's life for what and how it is, Souleymane's Story becomes a film of considerable empathy. It understands and shows that the true nature of any person is more than the story one has to tell.

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