Souleymane is one of many refugees coming to France from Africa, in particular from Guinea-Conakry. The audience spends two hectic days with him in Paris, the screenplay and the performance from Abou Sangare, instantly gripping us. For audiences who have had little to do with refugees and their difficulties in getting to a country – living without papers, trying to get access to documentation, in the meanwhile trying to work, sometimes even to survive day by day – this film is the strongest of challenges. Those who work with refugees and experience their struggles will immediately identify (and urge as many as possible to go to see the film, to learn and appreciate).
In fact, the film opens with Souleymane making an appointment for an interview to get his papers. However, he is at the mercy of other refugees who actually exploit the newcomers. There is Barry, a wheeler dealer, inventing stories for the interviewees, suggesting that they are members of an active political group in their own country, committed to causes (and with a list to help the interviewee remember what they were supposed to have done, the names of the people that they worked with, precise dates and statistics, which Souleymane and others have difficulty in memorising). And Barry is demanding payment, abrupt in manner, some few moments of sympathy but on to the next refugee.
And there is Emanuel, also exploiting newcomers, sharing his permit card so that they can work on deliveries of food, on their bikes through the busy city, accidents with cars, time demands, mean-minded and racist Café managers, police enjoying taunting the refugees, and Emanuel demanding 50% of Souleymane’s earnings.
There are time demands and constant pressures, hurrying to catch trains, connecting buses, missing connections and sleeping out, booking in advance a bed for the night in one of the many hostels, large rooms full of bunks, and lining up at the soup kitchens for something to eat and drink.
There is constant pressure on Souleymane, phone calls from a girlfriend from Guinea who is thinking of marrying, double dealings from Emanuel, a fight and injury, trying to pin down Barry for coaching for the interview.
But, thankfully interspersed are some moments of quiet, but then on with the pressure. While most of the supporting characters here are refugees, many of them sympathetic to Souleymane, and some glimpses of French people who are kind.
And, finally, the interview itself, tense, Souleymane drawing on his coaching to answer the questions, the interviewer a sympathetic listener – but who has heard all this many times before. Sold does eventually, haltingly, at the end, tell his story of home life, his decision to leave home, travels, ill-treatment, his hopes.
As mentioned, the film is often hectic, handheld camera, running after and with Souleymane, speeding through the night city. At the end, the audience has to decide, along with the interviewer, whether Souleymane is telling a story that deserves refugee status and acceptance in France for him.
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