Souleymane’s Story (12A)
Directed by Boris Lojkine
★★★★★

GUINEAN asylum-seeker Souleymane (Abou Sanger) is soaring through Parisian traffic on his bicycle at breakneck speed. He’s working as a courier for a food delivery service app to earn the cash to survive and pay for documents he needs for his asylum application interview in the next two days.

But as an undocumented migrant he’s not allowed to work so has been lent the courier account by its unscrupulous holder Emmanuel (Emmanuel Yovanie), who takes half his earnings.

Exploited at every turn, the desperate Souleymane seeks the help of fellow Guinean immigrant Barry (Alpha Oumar Sow), who charges applicants for false stories of political persecution to be used at their hearings.

This raw and unembellished portrait of France’s immigration system and the luckless struggle of asylum-seekers is a masterstroke from French director Boris Lojkine. His decision to cast mainly non-actors led to the discovery of the then 23-year-old Abou Sanger, whose astonishingly powerful and moving performance was no doubt informed by his own fight for permanent legal status in France. He deservedly won best actor in the Cannes film festival’s Un Certain Regard category.

In almost every shot, Souleymane’s 48-hour countdown to his asylum interview is a bleak roller-coaster ride of emotion, injected with rare moments of warmth and camaraderie from fellow immigrants and calls to his girlfriend Kadiatou (Keita Diallo) back home.

The final gruelling 20-minute scene of his asylum interview with Agente de l’Ofpra (Nina Meurisse) is truly agonising to watch.

Souleymane’s Story cleverly raises many questions about the asylum system, not just in France but globally, but leaves the answers hanging.
WS
In cinemas October 17

Sunlight (15)
Directed by Nina Conti
★★★★★

A WOMAN in a monkey suit (Nina Conti), a suicidal radio hack (Shenoah Allen), a campervan, and the open road. Sounds like the set-up to a bone-headed stoner comedy, but instead we find something much more intriguing, heartfelt, and true.

Sunlight, Conti’s directorial debut, follows the ancient quest narrative and the intense relationship between two people who have spent their lives pretending to be someone or something else while in retreat from severe trauma.

Scripted by the two leads, this is an intense, and intensely observed, relationship. Conti, an award-winning comedian and ventriloquist, gives an extraordinary performance, all yearning, plaintive humanity, whether inside or outside the mask.

Allen, meanwhile, is only mildly less believable as a special interest radio interviewer who has long since stopped believing the words coming out of his mouth.

Both these actors are clearly gifted improvisers, and much of their back-and-forth is snappier than a beatnik’s fingers. Amid the sexual tension and unlikely narrative dreams, the contrast between Conti’s rather schoolma’am voice and the parade of filth that emerges from those unseeing simian eyes anchors this meditation on what lies beneath what we choose to show the world.
JW
In cinemas October 17

Good Fortune (15)
Directed by Aziz Ansari
★★★★

THE stark and harrowing gap between the haves and the have-nots in Los Angeles is explored through a poignant comic lens in this impressive debut feature, written and directed by US comedian/actor Aziz Ansari. 

It follows the well-meaning but inept guardian angel Gabriel (Keanu Reeves channelling Bill & Ted) as he upends the lives of a struggling gig worker Arj (Ansari) and a wealthy venture capitalist Jeff (Seth Rogen on top form) by performing a life swap. He aims to show Arj, who has hit rock bottom, that being rich would not solve all his problems. Unfortunately Arj disagrees and refuses to switch back and hilarity ensues. 

Gabriel, duly demoted by his boss (the wonderful Sandra Oh) for crossing a line, experiences the despondency of Arj’s former life by becoming a food delivery driver with Jeff and living in a car. Reeves is divine as the disillusioned, chain-smoking Gabriel who ends up losing the will to live.  

It is laugh out loud funny yet thought provoking as it highlights the hardships and mistreatment of gig workers in scenes very reminiscent of those in Souleymane’s Story also out this week. 
MD 
In cinemas October 17

After the Hunt (15)
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
★★

ITALIAN director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) turns to academia and the literati at Yale for this psychological drama which has all the hallmarks of a Woody Allen film but without the biting humour. 

From the opening credits and soundtrack to the group of pseudo intellectuals spouting unfathomable theories it is very Allen-esque. 

Written by Nora Garrett it follows Alma (Julia Roberts), a college professor who is at a personal and professional crossroads when her star PHD student Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) accuses one of Alma’s closest friends and colleagues (Andrew Garfield) of raping her, sparking a major fallout. 

Although full of stunning performances the problem is these are all obnoxious, privileged and self-serving snobs and odious people. None of them have any redeeming qualities, including Maggie whose rich and influential parents secured her a place at Yale. Another miss from Guadagnino. 
MD
In cinemas October 17