Having fled Guinea, Souleymane (in the words of the Watershed’s blurb) “powers through the streets of after dark Paris as a delivery rider, sleeps in hostels and prepares for his make-or-break appointment which will determine his residence permit status”.
It’s a pressurised, sobering existence for people like Souleymane (played brilliantly by Abou Sangaré), clinging on at the margins of the French capital. He’s facing his impending asylum interview which will decide his immediate future.
Some years ago, I befriended an asylum-seeker in Bristol and know first-hand of the pressures and bureaucratic nightmares facing the likes of Souleymane.
I watched the film in the Watershed’s small Cinema 2 (which has an audience capacity of just over 40); it was a Monday afternoon-showing and, frankly, I anticipated that I might be one of half a dozen people in attendance… but I was entirely wrong. The cinema was full.
This portrait of a modern migrant propels one into the precarious world of an otherwise invisible man and it reflects the hectic daily pressures of survival in a deceitful and unfair world in something of a frenzied blur… BUT then the scene changes to his asylum interview and the stark, painful questioning process and his back-story… and Souleymane leaving the building, knowing that the powers-that-be would be emailing him 3 days’ time informing him of his fate.
The absolute silence in the cinema at the end (and the fact that no one moved from their seat for a prolonged time) said it all.
It’s a tense, achingly human, empathetic and hugely impressive film.
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