One of our favorite discoveries of last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story went on to pick up the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, the Un Certain Regard prize for Best Actor (Abou Sangare), and the FIPRESCI Prize. Now set for an August 1 release in NYC at Film at Lincoln Center and IFC Center, followed by an August 8 in LA at Laemmle Royal, Kino Lorber have debuted the new trailer and poster.
Here’s the synopsis: “Racing through the streets of Paris making food deliveries on his bicycle, Guinean immigrant Souleymane (Abou Sangare) is struggling to stay afloat. In two days, he has to report for an asylum application interview, where he must plead his case to an immigration officer (Nina Meurisse) who will determine his future in France. As he rides, he repeats his story. But Souleymane is not ready. Drawing inspiration from Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and evoking the humanist films of the Dardennes, Boris Lojkine’s urgent, propulsive third feature never leaves Souleymane’s side in a deeply affecting account of the daily trials and uncertain futures faced by migrants in France and around the world.”
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “This nerve-shredder is the latest socio-political treatise from Boris Lojkine, director of Hope (which followed a young woman’s attempts to emigrate from Cameroon to Europe) and Camille (a biopic of the French photojournalist Camille Lepage, who died while covering the conflict in Central African Republic in 2014). Souleymane’s Story premiered in Un Certain Regard, where both Sangare and Lojkine were rightly rewarded for their efforts. It was, for my money, the best discovery of this year’s Cannes Film Festival and, somewhat ironically, exactly the kind of work that used to define it. Since the Dardenne brothers’ win with Rosetta in 1999, at least four Palme d’Ors have gone to titles of Rosetta‘s ilk, but that style of filmmaking has become desperately unfashionable. Souleymane suggests there may be life in it yet.”
See the trailer below.
