Abou Sangare, the moving hero of “The Story of Souleymane”, threatened with expulsion

The amateur actor has caused a sensation since the presentation of Boris Lojkine’s latest film at the Cannes Film Festival where he won several awards, including best actor for Abou Sangare.

Three refusals of a residence permit, a prize in Cannes and a final hope: Abou Sangare, a young Guinean apprentice mechanic in Amiens, is the hero of The Story of Souleymanein theaters Wednesday October 9. The prefect of the Somme requested a review of his situation.

In 2023, Abou Sangare, a mechanics student, is volunteering in a popular education association in Amiens when the manager informs him of a casting. Director Boris Lojkine is looking for young Guineans.

“I had a 5-10 minute interview, then I left, I had work on a car… In the afternoon, the team called me back to test again”, says the 23-year-old young man, who came to present the film in preview in Amiens. The director, at his side, says he was convinced by “a moment of silence” during new tests in Paris. “There was such density, suddenly it was cinema.”

Born on May 7, 2001, in Sinko, in the southeast of Guinea, Abou Sangare was already an apprentice mechanic when he left his country with the hope of helping his sick mother. As a teenager, he crossed Mali, Algeria, Libya, the Mediterranean and Italy before arriving in Paris in 2018 at the age of 16.

He is advised to go to another city “smaller”“I was told ‘Paris, you’re going to struggle'”, he chose Lille, he says modestly. But, “Gare du Nord, controllers are on the platform” And “I don’t have a ticket”it’s late, “I’m taking the last train, direction Amiens”.

In the film, the hero Souleymane is also Guinean, but it is in Paris that he survives as a bicycle deliveryman, crisscrossing the capital, cubic bag on his back, and preparing for his asylum application interview. For 1.5 hours, stuck to the main character, “we embrace the perspective he has on the world”, observing Paris “in his eyes”, says Boris Lojkine. Presented at Cannes in May in the Un Certain Regard section, the film received the Jury Prize, and Abou Sangare the Best Actor Prize.

Boris Lojkine conducted interviews with delivery men to get behind the scenes: account subletting, customers, their relationships with each other… Abou Sangare, who had no acting experience, became a delivery man for two weeks, to familiarize themselves with the role.

In order to embody the “density of reality, it’s important to have details, all these little things that we can’t invent”explains the director, who also “blurred the tracks” between Abou Sangare and Souleymane “to help him fully get into the role.”

During the asylum interview, one of the most poignant scenes in the film, it is a part of his own story that Abou Sangare delivers on screen. “This is the gift that Sangare gives to the film, we were all amazed, this is the moment when he becomes a great actor”, praises its director.

On July 24, 2024, the administrative court of Amiens confirmed the refusal of a residence permit and “validated the obligation to leave the territory”, the Somme prefecture told AFP. However, “due to the integration process of the person concerned”the prefect requested a review of his situation at the beginning of August and a new file must be submitted to the prefectural services.

The young Guinean says he is in a hurry to return to his job as a mechanic, while casting for other films – projects suspended for possible regularization. “As long as my situation is not resolved, I cannot consider anything.”he regrets. “When you take Sangare to play the lead role in the film, it’s a responsibility.”believes Boris Lojkine. “Only when he gets his papers will I feel like I’ve finished my film.”