ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ

In L'Histoire de Souleymane we meet a delivery worker from Guinee who is trying to survive the big city of Paris while waiting for his asylum interview. The movie gives an important insight in the large group of, often undocumented, migrants who take high risks on their bikes to deliver food in global cities.

Abou Sangare, the main actor who is from Guinee himself, was scouted by the director from a group of sans papiers in Paris. Abou travelled the same route to Paris through Libya and you can really feel that fiction and reality are not far from each other in this film. The intense acting, as well as the dynamic camera work, really hits you as a viewer. It almost feels like you are driving the city on the back of Souleymane’s bike.

While watching him drive full speed on his bike we learn about all the people and institutions around him that try to profit from his vulnerable position. There is country men who charge money for asylum advise and fake documents that support asylum stories, people who rent out their account so he can work, but then don’t pay him his earned salary, and consumers who with their rude behavior can easily and quickly worsen his already extremely precarious working conditions. When a customer complaints about food that comes too late or is cold upon arrival, or in Souleymane’s case when the bag is wet because his bike had fallen on the floor during a traffic accident, people’s account can be blocked. This means no more work.

Delivering food, a job that might in first instance seem flexible, free and an easy opportunity to earn money turns out to be a nightmare with very unhealthy risks and a lot of control and discipline by others. Every now and then the app asks for a face ID and Souleymane needs to quickly drive to the owner of the account for a selfie. Still, Souleymane is approached everyday by newcomers in the city if he can help them get an account so they can start this tiring and risky job.

There is more obstacles that come with the job. Some restaurant owners let their delivery drivers wait outside, also when it rains heavily, and let them wait for long times which means they cannot take other orders (read less earnings). We also see open racism from restaurant owners and from customers and co-workers.

Next to cruelty in the city and the harsh experiences of surviving we do get to see some solidarity in the city as well, from restaurant owners who give their workers a candy and/or a smile, but also the solidarity between workers that is there. Every night Souleymane needs to catch the last bus to the night shelter where he is staying in the periphery. Under pressure to earn more money you see him struggle between the last order he can take and the bus he needs to catch. Country men often help him by convincing the driver to wait one more minute. One time he fails and he needs to spent the night outside.

The money Souleymane earns is needed to survive in Paris, but migrants are never on their own. We also get insights in where the money ends up in Guinee. His mother is in need of care and there is a girlfriend waiting for him who needs financial support as well. This movie portrays an honest picture of the struggles in the rat race to survive as a migrant in the informal economy of a global city far away from home.

For our Horizon project I-CLAIM we are currently interviewing delivery workers in Utrecht, Warsaw, Berlin and Birmingham. Souleymane’s story speaks a lot to the experiences we are documenting in these other European cities. For more information see: