“Refugees are neither seen nor heard, but they are everywhere. They are witnesses to the most awful things that people can do to each other, and they become storytellers simply by existing. Refugees embody misery and suffering, and they force us to confront terrible chaos and evil” – Arthur C. Helton

“We wanted to rebuild our lives. That was all. We lost out home, which means the familiarity of life. We lost our occupation, the confidence that we are some use in this world. We lost our language, which means the naturalness of reactions, the simplicity of gestures, the unaffected expression of feelings.”– Hannah Arendt

The Story of Souleymane (L’Histoire de Souleymane)by Boris Lojkine, featured in the Un Certain Regard (ACertain Glance) section of the 77thCannes International Film Festival, bagged two awards in the said competition.

The film, which tells the story of the two days before an interview for asylum status,picked the Jury prize, as also the Best Actor Award for Abou Sangare, for his impressive bravura performance as the Guinean biker delivery man Souleymane staking it all to impress the immigration officials for that prized asylum endorsement.

The Un Certain Regard, which turned out to be the only saving feature of the 77th Cannes International Film Festival, whose main competition, with several big ticket names, was sheer disappointing, offers a perspective lens into current social reality situations across the world.

The section, rightfully mainly encourages and provides a platform for filmmakers of promise, and on ascendency, as also those taking their first baby steps into the directorial business, to premiere their new or first works and stamp their names in the annals of global film festival theatre circuits, prior to their proper theatrical releases back home.

Immigration, asylum seeking, leaving one’s own homeland braving against all odds through life threatening situations, security conduits, to find a safe harbour and possibly a better future, has been the common feature of the countries ridden with civil strife, among other socio-political conflicts.

And as United Nations Refugee ChiefAntonio Guterres has said “we can’t deter people fleeing for their lives. They will come. The choice we have is how well we manage their arrival, and how humanely.”

One such man in need of authority’s empathy and understanding is what Boris Lojkine seeks to turn the beacon on in his latest visitation with The Story of Souleymane (L’Histoire de Souleymane), a tale that should resonate among the thousands of victims, but, more importantly, the authorities who decide their fate.

Adopting a pulse pounding, racy thriller style of narrative, the native French film maker Boris Lojkine, known earlier for his works – the richly rewarded 2014 feature Hope, and 2019 Camille, the director has his audiences literally on the edge of their seats.

They squirm and shift as they witness agape Souleymane race against time to cobble up the amount necessary to procure the documents for the next day’s interview with the authorities, even as his mentally goes through the interview process based on the tutoring he has received from an earlier successful compatriot.

In a way, one may say that director Boris returns to the familiar theme of exodus to a better destination which he tackled in Hope, wherein you had Leonard on a clandestine sojourn from Cameroon to Europe through the Sahara desert, where he meets Hope, a Nigerian girl on a similar journey pursing the same dream.

Hope, which was screened as part of the Critics’ Week section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival won the La Semaine de la CritiqueAward, besides the Critics Award at the Hamburg Film Festival who described it as:Boris Lojkine’s cinematic debut vividly reflects poverty and violence in post-colonial Africa in the personal drama of two refugees. The suffering of both of them is brought home to us in an oppressive way through the performance by the outstanding leading actors Endurance Newton and Justin Wang. Hope and Léonard surprise themselves, each other and even us in their battle for a better life.”

If in Hope, it was a Cameroonian and a Nigerian girl set upon an arduous journey to escape their mitigating circumstances, in The Story of Souleymane though having found a safe harbour in France is still that one step away from legitimising his stay in the country – through turning his illegal immigrant situation, escaping deportation, to that of grant of asylum.

But then, that is easier said and aspired for. The one hurdle that separates this is the interview OFPRA, the French governmental agency that deals with immigrant issues, where he has to convince the official concerned that Souleymane’s story is true of the situation in his country and he needs the safety and security that France would provide for persons like him.

A non actor, Abou Sangare, with his natural and realistic portrayal of a distressed immigrant man escaping the long arm of the law makes for a nerve-wrecking and fetching debut as Souleymane, as he cycles and sprints and busses across the byzantine lanes and avenues of The City of Light (Ville lumière) –meeting his delivery orders even as he meets then men of his ilk who matter for his next day’s crucial interview and constantly repeats and memories the lines he needs to recite before the official.

“Abou Sangare, who had arrived in France seven years earlier, in real life was a mechanic, who did deliveries for several weeks to familiarise himself with the everyday activities, the bike, the phone, the app… Bit by bit, entering into the skin of his character,” says the director. Justifiably, Sangare delivers with aplomb, the confidence and trust reposed in him by the director, who believes that “non-professional actors (…) come with who they are, they are carriers of their world. It’s up to me to capture their uniqueness.”

Souleymane latest to arrive in Paris from Guinea, sleeps in homeless shelters at night working as a delivery biker by day using a “borrowed” account paying a hefty cut of his earnings to the ‘real’ fleecing owner, Emmanuel.

Despite it being a hard, physically demanding existence, lived in the teeth of a daily litany of deadlines, not only the countdowns on the constantly-dinging app, but metro timetables, documentation appointments and the unforgiving bus schedule, scooting and criss-crossing on his routines, Souleymane’s optimism is what that keeps him going.

This even at the heart breaking situation that his girl back home has found a much educated engineer suitor who has sought her hand in marriage and having to let her go and decide what best suits her.

Such is his camaraderie and joviality and benign nature with the ilk of his own brethren community he is fondly hailed and addressed as “Souleymane of Paris,”virtually the man on the go who rules the gig duty and the bylanes of his beat.

What remains with you as you leave Souleymane and his fate played out on the screen, is the heart-rending scene between asylum seeker and the official, efficient but not unsympathetic face of French immigration bureaucracy.

Most important of all is the film’s quintessential conflict of Souleymane to lie or not to lie, his conscience see-sawing between the truth and the expedient lie, and his lady counsel, having to do her duty by the book that gnaws at your emotive strings.

By

S Viswanath who is veteran Film Journalist / Critic & involved in various key capacities at many International Film Festivals circuits across the Globe also co-author of book ‘Random reflections: kaleidoscopic musings on Kannada cinema.