Souleymane's Story (2024) review

Originally from Guinea, Souleymane (Abou Sangare) is working as a bike courier in Paris (by "renting" another individual's account), spends his nights in a men's shelter and, using a false story concocted by "adviser" Barry (Alpha Oumar Sow), is hoping to sway OFPRA (the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons) to grant him asylum.  This just goes to show the United States doesn't have a monopoly on Liberal Guilt bait: the audience is intended to empathize with the subject and the constant problems it keeps methodically throwing at him - he's hit by a car, customers give him a hard time, he can't get money, etc. - except the movie lags quite a bit in its middle act and the fact that Souleymane has to invent a tale of woe (involving eviction and being labeled a "political opponent") is irksome.  Back in his native country he had a trade (as a mechanic) and there's a nice young lady he video chats with who clearly cares about him ... so why abandon that to do gig work in a major city?  And if the second narrative he provides for the OFPRA interviewer is correct (which I'm not sure of), is abandoning your mentally-ill mother the best way to care for her?