From undocumented migrant to most awarded European actor in just one year

BarcelonaThere are times when life accelerates and goes crazy. This happened last year to Abou Sangaré, a Guinean migrant who arrived in France at the age of 16 after crossing Mali, Algeria, Libya, the Mediterranean, and Italy. Based in Amiens, in northern France, Sangaré was chosen to play an undocumented migrant, like himself, in the film. The story of Souleymane, which premiered at Cannes in May 2024, where his performance was awarded Best in the Un Certain Regard section. He still had no roles, but he was hailed like a star. "Canes was a very stressful experience for me," the actor explains via video call. "Presenting the film in front of 900 people isn't something I usually do, and I got very nervous. And when everyone started applauding afterwards, it was like landing in another world."

The story doesn't end there, because two months later, an administrative court denied Sangaré a residence permit for the third time—the same one he's desperately seeking. alter ego in the film – and invited him to leave France. In October, The story of Souleymane It was released in French cinemas and became a hit with over 600,000 viewers, and in December Sangaré won the Best Actor award at the EFA European Film Awards – beating out stars such as Daniel Craig and Ralph Fiennes – but his legal situation prevented him from travelling to Suï.

Fortunately, thanks to popular outcry and "his progress in terms of integration", the court reviewed the residency request and in early 2025 Sangaré obtained a residency permit – valid for only one year – thanks to a contract as a mechanic, the trade he learned in the vocational baccalaureate he attended. "I've known misery," he explained upon receiving the César for Best New Actor a month later. "I had almost no life, I didn't consider myself a human being. Until April 2023, when I was offered a job that allowed me to get out of prison. Because if you can't live in minimal conditions, life is a prison."

A rider on the streets of Paris

The story of Souleymane, which premieres this Wednesday, draws in part from the actor's own experience. rider and spends his days pedaling frantically with a rented account from a package-delivery platform. And when he has a few seconds of calm, he rehearses the speech he'll give when he defends his request for political asylum. "I already had the script written beforehand, but when I met Abou, I adapted part of his story," explains director Boris Lojkine, who had already tackled the subject: his first feature film, Hope (2014), ended with two migrants in the Mediterranean seeing the lights off the Spanish coast, their destination. "I always told myself I had to do some kind of sequel and explain what happens to migrants when they arrive in Europe," he says.

His new film captures the relentless pace of a workday in a rider Precarious in an indifferent and hostile Paris. The cell phone he clings to is his only ally, whether for work, contacting his family, or booking a spot in the shelter where he'll sleep that night. Sangaré, with no acting experience, conveys the fragility of someone always on the brink, sustained by sheer determination and resilience. "The filming was a difficult experience, while at the same time it wasn't, because the crew was so supportive," he recalls. "The hardest part was learning a speech about Guinean politics, and also delivering it as if I were lying. Luckily, we did two months of rehearsals and a two-week course like I do as a delivery driver to master the intricacies of the job; they didn't have to teach me that."

Although he claimed at Cannes that he had no ambitions to be an actor ("I'm a mechanic and I'm looking forward to working in a garage," he said at the time), a year later his position has changed. "I'm playing the mechanic now, but if a script comes in, I'll send it to Boris to see what he thinks," he says. "And in the future, I'd like to combine the two." For Lojkine, in fact, a director's responsibility toward non-professional actors doesn't end with the film's shooting or release. "For me, the film isn't finished until Abou has an indefinite residence permit," the director says.