Asylum-seeker to film star: Guinean's unusual journey highlights France's arguments over immigration

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A few months ago, Abou Sangare was an anonymous, 23-year-old Guinean immigrant lacking permanent legal status in northern France and, like thousands of others, fighting deportation. Now a lead actor in “Souleymane’s Story,” an award-winning feature film that hit French theaters this week, his face is on every street corner and in subway stations, bus stops and newspapers. “When I see Souleymane sitting in the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, I put myself in his place, because I know what it’s like to wait for your papers here in France, to be in this situation — the stress, the anxiety,” Sangare told The Associated Press in an interview. Responding to AP questions, French authorities said the deportation order against Sangare “remains legally in force" but added that officials reexamined his case because of steps he's taken to integrate.