Abou Sangare at his workplace in Colombes, March 16, 2026. CHLOE SHARROCK/MYOP FOR LE MONDE
At our last meeting, two years ago, Abou Sangare had said, "Act in films again? If the opportunity comes up, why not? But what I love, what I know how to do, is mechanics…" That was just before he received the best actor award at Cannes for his role in Boris Lojkine's L'Histoire de Souleymane (Souleymane's Story), before he won the César for most promising male newcomer in 2025, before more than 600,000 moviegoers in France saw the film, and well before he, a Guinean national without legal residency and under a deportation order, was granted an official residence permit.
Today, he is back in Colombes, a suburb of Paris, working under a pale sun with backhoes, forklifts, aerial work platforms and other construction machinery rented out by his employer, Loxam. The boy of yesterday has become a determined young man, still carrying that same sincere look – sometimes joyful, sometimes serious – that made his character Souleymane, the bicycle deliveryman in the film, so compelling.
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