Skip to main content

Boris Lojkine

Director
Boris Lojkine is a French director and screenwriter who has earned himself a firm place in European auteur cinema thanks to his humanistic film language and his intense engagement with political and social issues. After studying philosophy and spending several years as a documentary filmmaker, he turned to feature films, his works characterized by vivid character portrayals and realistic staging. With HOPE (2014, director and screenwriter: Boris Lojkine), he presented his award-winning feature film debut. The film accompanies two refugees on their dangerous journey from Africa to Europe and was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in the Semaine de la Critique series. HOPE received the Prix SACD and the Prix de la Critique in Cannes, as well as other awards at international festivals, including Locarno and Angers. His second feature film, CAMILLE (2019, director and screenwriter: Boris Lojkine), is dedicated to the life of French photojournalist Camille Lepage, who was killed during the civil war in the Central African Republic. The film premiered at the Locarno Festival, where it won the Audience Award. In it, Lojkine succeeds in creating an impressive portrait of commitment, empathy, and the moral boundaries of journalistic work. With L’histoire de Souleymane (2024, director: Boris Lojkine), he returned to Cannes once again, this time in the Un Certain Regard section. This drama about a young asylum seeker in Paris cemented his reputation as a director who translates global migration realities into personal stories with great sensitivity. Boris Lojkine's work stands for cinema that is political, poetic, and deeply human—supported by precise observation and the search for truth in the space between documentary and fiction.

Films

Hope

Hope

By Boris Lojkine

2014 | 93 min | Drama

On their flight from the Gulf of Guinea to the Moroccan coast, two people, despite or because of the omnipresent danger, find each other.

Camille

Camille

By Boris Lojkine

2019 | 92 min | Biography

Photojournalist Camille goes to the Central African Republic to cover a brewing civil war. What she sees there will change her destiny forever.

Recommended for you

Raju

Raju

2010 | 23 min | Drama

In this Oscar nominated short, a German couple, played by Wotan Wilke Möhring and Julia Richter, adopts an Indian orphan in Kolkata. On their way to the hotel, the boy disappears. The German officials have recommended a local Indian orphanage to them. There the four-year-old boy Raju, who comes from a slum, is introduced to them and handed over. When the boy suddenly disappears and the Indian police cannot get any further with their investigations, Jan himself starts an intensive search.

Café Waldluft

Café Waldluft

2015 | 79 min | Documentary

CAFÉ WALDLUFT is not what it used to be. Once a tourist hot spot nestling in the picturesque mountains of Bavaria, it now offers shelter to refugees from all across the globe. For each one of them it carries the hope of a new beginning, the aspiration of a new home – waiting somewhere behind a multitude of obstacles. So what does it take for them to arrive for good? What does it really take for a place to become home? With only a few remaining guests in their late sixties, they brainstorm together ...

The Dream

The Dream

1987 | 45 min | Documentary

Interviews with Palestinians living in Lebanese refugee camps, some of it shot in Sabra and Shatila before the massacre. Compiled from interviews with Palestinian refugees from the camps in Sabra, Shatila, Bourj el-Barajneh, Ain al-Hilweh and Rashidieh in Lebanon. While at the camps, Mohamad Malas asks people about their nightly dreams, which always refer to Palestine: a woman recounts her dream of winning the war; a Feda'i resistance fighter dreams of bombings and martyrdom; an old man describes ...

Amal

Amal

2014 | 55 min | Documentary

Memories of the war influence their everyday life. Especially the violent death of their three-year-old daughter Amal (Arabic: hope) keeps the parents stuck in the past. She died during an attack when a shell hit the family home. Their two sons were seriously injured. Ghadir and Mohamad then came to Germany to have the injured children treated here. Then they want to go back. Arriving in Germany is easier for the children than for their parents. They are slowly getting used to their new home - each ...

The Queen's Courtyard

The Queen's Courtyard

2006 | 80 min | Documentary

Eva Heldmann's documentary THE QUEENS COURTYARD centers around Princess Nnana, the great-granddaughter of King Bathoen I, who is considered one of Botswana's visionary founders of the 19th century. After the death of her brother Prince Seatla, a funeral ceremony offers intimate insights into their way of life. The villagers are busy with the preparations, cows are slaughtered, state ministers offer condolences and the president of the country flies in by helicopter. "An absorbing and fascinating ...

Si-o-se Pol - The Last Days of Parvis K.

Si-o-se Pol - The Last Days of Parvis K.

2015 | 82 min | Drama

There he meets two European migrants who are also in distress. "THE LAST DAYS OF PARVIS K. is an emotional and moving story about three different fates." (filmaffe.de) Henrik Peschel's internationally acclaimed drama THE LAST DAYS OF PARVIS K. is at the same time a very private and a very political story. Parvis flees to Europe after a long prison term which involved torture. Together with his new companions, Fabrizio, a failed pianist from Italy who keeps his head above water with occasional jobs, ...

Counting Tiles

Counting Tiles

2018 | 86 min | Documentary

Camp Moria, Lesbos. Cynthia Choucair's documentary follows 'Clowns without Borders' to find out more about the current refugee experience and the extremely precarious situation of children in times of flight and displacement. Cynthia Choucair was herself a refugee child during the Lebanese civil war. With this experience and inspired by the current crisis, her sister decided to become a professional clown and volunteer with 'Clowns Without Borders', an NGO that works with refugee children. Choucair ...

Wada

Wada

2015 | 28 min | Drama

A war raging in one part of the world can affect people thousands of miles away. Ibrahim, a musical instrument maker, came to Berlin in the 1980's as a refugee. As a family man, he struggles with the grueling sense of responsibility towards his family. The war is thousands of miles away, yet it destroys everything. Film director Khaled Mzher, a student at the DFFB - the German Film and Television Academy Berlin saw his documentary short win the Short Film Corner Award of the San Sebastian Film ...

Just a Friday

Just a Friday

2022 | 26 min | Drama

After a harrowing escape from the front line, 15-year-old Hans Jokisch and his family return to their village in Silesia. But their beloved home is occupied - by the Schöppe family. They have no choice but to share the house from now on. Over time, the Jokisch house also becomes a home for the Schöppe family and Hans befriends the young Bruno Schöppe. But when Germany surrenders in 1945 and Silesia now belongs to Poland, both families suddenly are forced to flee the house and leave all their possessions ...

Zertifikat Deutsch

Zertifikat Deutsch

2009 | 90 min | Documentary

Among other regulations, this law requires non-European immigrants pass a difficult language test (Zertifikat Deutsch) to get citizenship or an extension of their residency permits. Karin Jurschick's film documents one of these so-called integration courses at an adult education center in Cologne. Here language students from China, Somalia, Afghanistan, Marocco and the Dominican Republic try to learn German. (Note: the coursecertificate is now called "Zertifikat Integrationskurs" which encompasses ...