L'HISTOIRE DE SOULEYMANE (Boris Lojkine)

Screening: - MONDAY 9 NOVEMBER at 20h30 Buy your TICKETS HERE! TIP: first buy your season ticket for 2026-27 HERE, and save 2 euros per regular screening for our entire upcoming season! —— Together with Kanaga vzw and the Mondiale Raad Mechelen we are screening ‘L’HISTOIRE DE SOULEYMANE’, the film that made a huge splash at the previous Festival van Cannes. De Souleymane in the title is one of the many bicycle couriers in Paris (just like here) who every day risks his life in city traffic to deliver meals everywhere across the city. A crazy existence, but for the illegal immigrant who just arrived from West Africa, it is the only way to survive. To also become legal himself, he has come up with a story — ‘son histoire’ — together with an ‘advisor’, in the hope that he can trick the French migration officials with it. And in the meantime, he has ‘borrowed’ his identity from someone who is legally in the country… Only, playing bicycle courier while simultaneously preparing to get through an extremely strict migration procedure turns out to be a completely impossible combination, especially since the job barely yields a decent wage. ‘L’HISTOIRE DE SOULEYMANE’ is cleverly constructed by director Boris Lojkine as a thrilling thriller: the film races just like its cycling main character — brilliantly played by Abou Sangaré — from a to b and back, slalomming between obstacles and dodging hurdles. By the way, for those who love film history, there are a few winks to the neo-realist masterpiece ‘Ladri di Biciclette’ hidden in the story. ‘L’HISTOIRE DE SOULEYMANE’ not only won multiple awards in Cannes (i.a. for the outstanding performance of Abou Sangaré), but also received nothing but four-star reviews in the Belgian press. A touching, humane, and fiercely exciting film: do not miss it! L’HISTOIRE DE SOULEYMANE Directed by: Boris Lojkine F 2024, 94 min. Screening: - MONDAY 9 NOVEMBER at 20h30 Buy your TICKETS HERE! TIP: first buy your season ticket for 2026-27 HERE, and save 2 euros per regular screening for our entire upcoming season! An organization in collaboration with KANAGA vzw and Mondiale Raad Mechelen