Award-Winning Migrant Actor Earns Visa To Stay In France — As A Mechanic

A 23-year-old Guinean migrant who entered the Cannes film festival last year has been granted a work permit, according to his lawyer, who said on Wednesday that he can avoid deportation.

Abou Sangare won rave reviews as the lead actor in last year’s film “L’Histoire de Souleymane” (“Souleymane’s Story”) in which he played a food delivery cyclist in Paris who is preparing for an immigration interview.

In a role that reprised many of his own personal experiences as an undocumented immigrant living in France, he won the Cannes award for best male performance.

His lawyer, Claire Perinaud, told AFP that he had to file three unsuccessful applications for work visas and was ordered to deport him after the latter had successfully obtained a one-year permit for the first time.

He will ask for renewals and will be able to obtain longer-term visas later, she said, adding that this was in line with a report that was first published in his neighborhood newspaper, Ici Picardie.

Sangare claimed to have accepted a job as a mechanic and intended to work there instead of pursue a film career.

“There might be offers but I’m a mechanic, that’s my trade”, he said. “I can’t wait to start working in the garage”.

Sangare was chosen by director Boris Lojkine despite not having any acting experience in his hometown of Amiens, northeast France, between performing off-the-books tasks fixing cars and volunteering at a local education charity.

As a teenager, he left Guinea in search of money to pay for his epileptic mother’s medical expenses.

In an inflatable boat, he traveled across the Sahara to Algeria, Libya, and finally France, where he spent his first two years.

Source: Channels TV