The Story of Souleymane
One of the year’s finest and most vital French films, and the winner of three prestigious awards at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, writer/director Boris Lojkine’s vivid and compassionate new drama follows a young courier as he races across Paris whilst preparing for a life-changing residency interview. A social-realist thriller as humanist as it is propulsive, Lojkine’s masterfully-crafted film echoes not only Bicycle Thieves and the best films of the Dardennes, but also edge-of-your-seat thrillers such as Uncut Gems and Full Time. Only adding to the film’s immense power is the real-life situation of its remarkable lead, who has himself been denied citizenship by French authorities. Three times.