Kino Lorber Takes French Refugee Drama ‘Souleymane’s Story’ for North America (2025)

Kino Lorber has picked up North American rights to Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, a French drama about a bicycle deliveryman and asylum seeker in Paris, that won the jury prize at Cannes Un Certain Regard last year.

Non-professional Abou Sangare, who plays the titular lead character, Souleymane, won the Un Certain Regard best actor honor and has been universally praised for his performance, winning best acting honors at the European Film Awards and France’s Césars.

The film plays like a ticking-clock thriller as Souleymane, a Guinean immigrant, races through the streets of Paris, making food deliveries on his bicycle, struggling to stay afloat. In two days, he has to report for an asylum application interview, which will determine whether he will receive the covetedcarte de séjour, which would allow him to live and work legally in France. The “story” of the film’s title refers to the story he is planning to tell to secure his asylum, a story he repeats to himself, over and over. But it is clear Souleymane is not ready.

In his Hollywood Reporter review, critic Jordan Mintzer said the film evokes Vittorio De Sica’s neorealist classic,Bicycle Thieves as well as Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and the humanist films of the Dardenne brothers in its “deeply affecting account of the daily trials and uncertain futures faced by migrants in France and around the world.”

Souleymane’s Story was a commercial success in France, earning close to $4 million in theatrical release with some 500,000 admissions.

Kino Lorber will bow the film theatrically on August 1, followed by a multi-platform release. The deal for Souleymane’s Story was negotiated by Kino Lorber VP of Acquisitions Karoliina Dwyer and Agathe Mauruc of Pyramide International.