Boris Lojkine

Boris Lojkine, French director and screenwriter, was born in 1969. A former philosophy teacher and author of a thesis entitled Crise et Histoire - Le Problème d'une pensée philosophique du présent, he turned to cinema after his doctorate. He left university for Vietnam, where he had previously lived, and made the documentaries Ceux qui restent (2001) and Les Âmes errantes (2005), exploring post-war grief in Vietnam. He made his feature debut with Hope (2014), a film made with non-professional actors from migrant communities, which won an award at Cannes (Semaine de la Critique). In 2019, he directed Camille, inspired by the life of photojournalist Camille Lepage, which won the Audience Prize at Locarno Film Festival.

His commitment to African cinema led him to develop several projects in the Central African Republic, including an ephemeral film school with CinéFabrique and a production company, Makongo Films, to support and promote the emergence of young filmmakers in this country. In 2024, he signed L'Histoire de Souleymane, his first film in France, which won two awards at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section. Lojkine describes himself as “a French director with a Russian name who speaks Vietnamese and makes African films.”