Indigènes

Plot synopsis:
The film begins in North Africa where large numbers of indigènes (French Algerian Tirailleurs as well as Tunisian or Moroccan Goumiers) have been recruited into the French First Army of the Free French Forces, that has been formed to liberate France of the Nazi occupation in World War II.
Saïd, an impoverished goat herder, joins the 7th Algerian Tirailleur Regiment. With him are several other Berber men, including Yassir, who is seeking booty so that he can return home and his brother can marry; Messaoud, who wants to marry and settle in France; and literate Corporal Abdelkader, who is fighting for the equality and rights of the colonized Algerians.
Soon the men, dressed in lend-lease American uniforms meet Sergeant Martinez, a battle-hardened pied noir, who trains them before leading them on their first mission in the Italian Campaign. Their mission is to capture a heavily-defended mountain from the Germans. It soon becomes clear that their white commanding officer is using the colonial troops as cannon fodder to identify artillery targets. The African troops eventually succeed, but the tactics result in high casualties among the colonial troops. When asked by a French war correspondent about his thoughts on the losses, the white colonel replies, "today was a great victory for the Free French Forces".
The troops of the 7th ATR are transported to France to participate in Operation Dragoon to liberate the south of France. While aboard ship, a white cook refuses to give tomatoes to black soldiers. Abdelkader calls for equality but the mutiny is averted when Martinez and the company Captain assures everyone will be treated the same.
On arrival at Marseille, the colonial troops are greeted as heroes. Messaoud, meets and courts Irène, a French woman; When his regiment leaves, he promises to write and to return. She says she'll wait for him and they will marry. However, due to French censorship of mail between Arab men and white French women, Irène never learns Messaoud's fate.
Saïd becomes Martinez's orderly, for which the other soldiers call him "wench". Eventually, he snaps and holds a knife to Messaoud's throat. Abdelkader calms the situation, but Saïd makes it clear that in this segregated world the French authorities will not give their African soldiers anything. While drinking with the sergeant, Saïd mentions they are similar, as he had seen the picture of Martinez with his Arab mother; the NCO—a self-hating Arab—attacks him, and threatens to kill Saïd if he reveals this secret.
The colonial troops discover that while they are not allowed breaks, the white Free French Forces are given leave to return home in France. Eventually, the troops are told they are going home, but it's a ruse; instead, they are billeted behind the lines and given a ballet performance. Bored and disillusioned, most leave the tent and hold a meeting outside decrying the injustice. Martinez challenges the group, led by Abdelkader, and a fight starts.
Early the next morning, French MPs bring Messaoud to a temporary stockade where Abdelkader is also being held. Messaoud says he was arrested for trying to go back to Marseille and find Irène. Abdelkader is brought before the white Colonel who tells him that he needs him to go on a special mission: to take ammunition to American troops fighting in the Lorraine Campaign and also be the first French troops to liberate Alsace. The white officer promises that Abdelkader and the other African soldiers will get the rewards and recognition that success in this operation demands. Later, the white company captain tells the corporal that the colonel will keep his word.
Most of the men are killed by a booby trap, including Yassir's brother, as they cross the German lines. Martinez has been severely injured. Most of the troops want to return to their side, but Abdelkader rallies them to push on. Eventually, the corporal, Saïd, Messaoud, Yassir and Martinez reach an Alsatian village. Over the next few days the soldiers ingratiate themselves into the area, and Saïd befriends a milkmaid. A battle begins when a company of Germans arrive, and everyone except Abdelkader is killed. Messaoud is badly hurt by a Panzerschreck and then shot by a German rifleman. Saïd attempts to evacuate Martinez, but they are both shot by the Panzerschreck, killing Saïd and further wounding Martinez, who is quickly finished off. Abdelkader and Yassir attempt to flee, but Yassir is shot in the back by a German. However just as the corporal is cornered, more colonial troops arrive and drive the Germans out of the village.
As columns of Free French forces begin to move through the area, Abdelkader sees the colonel passing in his jeep, but the white commanding officer ignores him and he is pulled away by a staff officer who asks him where his unit is. When Abdelkader says they are all dead, he is simply assigned to another white NCO. As he walks out of the village, he passes a film cameraman filming only white troops standing by the liberated villagers.
The movie then moves to the present day. An elderly Abdelkader visits a war cemetery in Alsace to visit the graves of his comrades: Martinez, Saïd, Yassir and Messaoud. He then returns to his small rundown flat in modern-day France. The film then concludes with the caption to say that the servicemen from France's former colonies living in France had their pensions frozen in 1959 shortly before their various countries of origin's independence.

Tags: romantic, murder

Review:
Their goodness and patriotism are unmistakable and Saïd (Jamel Debbouze) remarks how "If I liberate a country, it's my country, even if I've never even been there." Here is a good-hearted contingent of North African soldiers who hope to catch some of the victory's glory, but whom are repeatedly shifted to the backseat because of their name, skin and accent.There was no way I would miss a film that French president Chirac cites as the sole reason he immediately rectified the pension plan for indigenous veterans, offering them the promise of equality for the law for the first time.
Why this is I do not know, but it ought to be attributed to the film and not the superb performances.When the squad of wet puppies make their way across the motherland, they are faced with two disturbances: the internal conflicts that arise in the army when it becomes apparent that North African soldiers are not given the same treatment as native French (no tomatoes, no weekend leaves, no promotions and no glory) and the gruesome reality on the battlefield.
If I hear an "epic, ethnic" score in a movie like this again, I will probably go out and kill someone  either the Arab who is singing, or the stupid Westerner who thinks mainstream audiences need everything spelled-out for them with this mandatory music inclusion.Aside from this minor misstep, Indigènes is a worthy merit to France's resumé of films, one that will surely be a frontrunner for the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the Oscars next year.
You feel frustrated, but you think of your rice bowl, and decide to grit your teeth and bear it, calling it just another day, secretly longing for a time where you are empowered to do something about it.In the liberation of France during WWII, North African men were recruited and enlisted in the French army in the fight against the Nazis.
However, the final battle would please action fans, as it is well choreographed and executed, and you feel both the pain and victory from a bunch of tightly knit soldiers trying their very best to defend a small town, in a samurai- seven-ish sort of way, also reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan's somehow.If you've missed this during the French Film Festival, don't fret.
The movie takes the viewer on a trip back to the second world war, showing how parts of the Arabic population fought with the French colonists for their freedom, against Nazi Germany trying to occupy Africa.
In the 7th battalion commanded by the tough Sergeant Roger Martinez (Bernard Blancan), the soldier Abdelkader (Sami Bouajila) has leadership with the troop and seeks promotion and recognition from the command; Said Otmari (Jamel Debbouze) is a servile and illiterate private, happy in serving his sergeant; Messaoud Souni (Roschdy Zem) is the sniper of the group and has fallen in a corresponded love with the French Irène (Aurélie Eltvedt); and Yassir (Samy Naceri) is fighting together with his brother to raise some money.
Along the campaign in Italy, France and Alsace, they realize that French soldiers are promoted, have better food and have leaves to visit their families, while the Arab soldiers are shamefully discriminated and treated like 2nd ranking soldiers."Indigènes" is an excellent movie of war, disclosing an unusual theme: the discrimination of the soldiers from the French colonies in World War II.
The anti-Semitism is presented in most of the films about WWII; racism and segregation with the American soldiers has been explored in a couple of movies; but the treatment spent to the Arab soldiers in World War II by France command is the first time that I see in a movie.
After French Premier Jacques Chirac saw the film, he agreed to compensate all North Africans who fought in World War II by unfreezing their pensions, a result the director Rachid Bouchareb worked hard to achieve.
Though conventional in its technique and lacking in any real character development, Days of Glory, a French Moroccan Algerian co-production, is an involving and heartfelt film whose outstanding ensemble cast won the award for Best Actor at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.The film depicts a group of North African volunteers who enlist in the French army to support the French resistance against the Nazis during World War II.
Unlike the French, the North African recruits are not granted leave to visit their families, are not promoted, and are not even allowed tomatoes with their dinner.The film opens in 1943 as the enlisted men say goodbye to their families in Algeria, Morocco, and Senegal to join the fight against the Germans.
Bouchareb follows four men: Said (James Debbouze), a young Algerian is moved to enlist by a recruiter's sloganeering and his own desire to escape his economic hardship; Yassir (Samy Naceri) who joins in Morocco even though he cannot help being bitter toward the French government that killed his family in the name of pacification.We later meet Messaoud (Roschdy Zem), a solid marksman who falls for a young French woman but their correspondence is intercepted and censored by the French and his "no luck" tattoo on his neck turns out to be prophetic.
This group jointly received the Best Actor award at Cannes last May. I think that "Glory" ranks with the very best war movies made in the modern era, right up there with films like Oliver Stone's "Platoon," Terrence Malick's "The Thin Red Line," and Clint Eastwood's recent "Letters from Iwo Jima." I wouldn't argue with anyone who claims that "Glory" is the best of the lot.
'Indigènes' (DAYS OF GLORY) as written by Olivier Lorelle and Rachid Bouchareb (who also directed) is a film of visceral power, another aspect of World War II that has not been addressed and that points to problems of inequality among fighting troops that still exists.
It is a grisly film (how can a film about war not be?) but shares a viewpoint that is as shocking as it is important.During WWII the French military incorporated African men including a large number of Algerian soldiers to fight the Nazis and protect France (and, yes, its protectorates) from oppression.
The men vary from idealist to illiterate but their sense of camaraderie is rock solid: Saïd Otmari (Jamel Debbouze) is unable to read or write and has only one arm, yet he is devoted to his mission of saving France and hence his family in Algeria; Yassir (Samy Naceri) proves to be a marksman and is the one selected to be front man during the most dangerous encounters; Messaoud Souni (Roschdy Zem) finds solace in the love of a French girl Irène (Aurélie Eltvedt) but his communications with her are censured by the military; Abdelkader (Sami Bouajila) is the natural leader among the four yet is not advanced in rank when the Frenchmen are.
French president Jacques Chirac announced last September after seeing the film that he would reverse a 47-year-old policy of freezing war pensions for the widows of expatriate African Army soldiers that fought for France.
Their story is unglamorous and shocking, and that's probably the reason the movie was made.Based on true events, Indigènes reveals that during WWII the French army exploited men born in the former colonies (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco) and had them do the most degrading jobs.
During their voyage to Europe, these soldiers have nothing to rely on but themselves and the hope that one day they will be reunited with their families, even though they know it's likely they'll never set foot in Africa again.Bouchareb's point is pretty clear: what the French did to all those foreigners was wrong, as was the fact that this situation remained unknown to the public for years (apparently, the film's cast had no idea such things had happened before filming started).
Indigenes (Days of Glory), as a movie about the huge contribution made by soldiers from the Empire in the renaissance of the French army in WW2, succeeds on several levels - it holds the interest, it twiddles with your emotions, and it gets a strong message across.As has been mentioned elsewhere in these reviews, the Free French army would have continued as a single brigade of men, had it not been for the Armee d'Afrique's large resources of Spahis, Tirailleurs and Goums - native troops from all over French Africa, but particularly Morrocco and Algeria.
In Indigenes, Jamel Debbouze (from Angel-A), Samy Naceri (from Taxi and Nid de Guepes) and Sami Bouajila (Nid de Guepes) amongst others are North African soldiers from the French colonies fighting the Germans in hope of getting recognition and equal rights with the French.Of course, somewhere along the way that doesn't really happen.
In World War II 130,000 young Algerian men enlisted in the French army to help liberate France from the Nazi enemy, despite having never set foot on French soil they fought side by side.
Describing the film the creators said 'Days of Glory' gives back Arab Muslims their rightful place as heroes of world war II, half a million Muslim men fought for the universal ides of freedom, honour and equality and to bring an end to Hitler's regime.' The films events begin with the 'green' recruits, leaving their homes and joining the armies of France, at first they are being treated as nothing more than cannon fodder in a race to push back the Nazi's but as the film progresses so do they.
For Algeria and much of Africa, it was France.Rachid Bouchareb's Oscar-nominated film draws us in as we meet young men in the North of Africa, circa 1943, ready to fight a war.
Days of Glory is set during the second half of World War 2 and the slow but steady liberation of France, Alsace was essential to the victory of the allies.The film surrounds the First French Army, recruited in Africa in order to avoid German eyes and the Vichy authorities: over 200,000 men, including 130,000 "indigenes" (natives) including 110,000 North Africans, and 20,000 "pieds- noirs" (French colonials) and one third young Frenchmen who fled the occupation.The story is a sad and forgotten story of the soldiers known as "Indigènes" and follows the story of four of them: Abdelkader, Saïd, Messaoud and Yassir, a mobile corps, reputed for their endurance, ground sense , and courage in close combat, each one in pursuit of a different objective throughout the passage across France which they are in part responsible for her liberation.The first half of the film relates to how the four men end up in the same corps and the racism they encounter along the way from the French despite them doing the same job and for a mother country they have never seen.
It also allows for substantial character development and the audience can closely identify with each characters positive and negative personality traits.The battle scenes are well crafted and carried out and you get a real sense of the horror of warfare both on and off the field as the Indigenes are sent in as fodder before the First French Army.The second half of the film deals with the four men as they hold and defend a small town in Alsace against the German army.
In 2001, the Council of State ruled in his favour posthumously but in 2003 the French government put a new freeze on the pensions.French president Jacques Chirac announced last September after seeing the film that he would reverse a 47-year-old policy of freezing war pensions for the widows of expatriate African Army soldiers that fought for France.
This is a masterpiece, an epic tragedy that resembles a critical and uncovered chapter of human's struggle against discrimination, poverty, tyranny and inequality, this movie explains a lot about the diversity of the modern days French society and the historical right of Arabs in France through the sacrifices of their ancestors to liberate France when it was in its weakest state, defeated, occupied and humiliated.The original title in French is "indigènes" (indigenous) which refers to the native North Africans in French culture, I find this title more relevant than the English more commercial one "Days of Glory".For the first half of the movie I wasn't getting the "glory" in nomad soldiers from the remote villages or Algerian mountains recruited in the French army to liberate France from German invasion!
that was absolute dishonor according to my principles, it was obvious that French commanders don't give a damn to the number of casualties between Arab and African soldiers as long as they achieve a symbolic victory over their oppressive opponent, discrimination was institutionalized, even "returning home" meant to French commanders returning to the French mainland, not returning every soldier to his own village in Africa.Soldiers mingle into the French territories with people cheering and praising their courage in the battlefield, Arab soldiers feel they belong to France, Saiid says to a French young lady that was listening to his courage stories: "je libère une pays, c'est mon pays" (I liberate a country, it's my country).Soldiers are now fighting for glory, for the principles of the French Revolution (liberté, égalité, fraternité) and under the slogans of Charles de Gaulle, they fight against Nazism and tyranny, they reject the German temptations to dilute their loyalty to the French army, they still see clear discrimination but still aspire for equality and fair compensation when they complete their mission and liberate what's now their own land, France.Music plays a great part in this movie, soundtrack and songs by Cheb Khalid are a solid part of the tragedy with its Arabic lyrics about alienation and leaving motherland in search for glory, homesickness and yearning to homeland's characteristics..
The French even intercepted the mail between foreign soldiers and the women of France, which is part of the love story as a backdrop which is heart breaking.Days of Glory is one of the better entries in the field of war dramas, with a message of humanity portrayed with great style..
I found Days of Glory a huge disappointment, a pity as I was looking forward to it with anticipation.The picture deals with a hugely interesting political topic from WW2; the recruitment from the French colonies of African soldiers to the Free French Army, and their subsequent marginalisation after the war.
French entry for best Foreign Language Oscar this year is the story of men from the French North African colonies who sign up to fight for France against the Germans and have to face discrimination as well as bullets.Good, but not particularly great look at an untold chapter of the French history of World War 2.
There is no glory - just heartbreak - in this story of natives of North Africa who were recruited by the French army to help liberate France during the Second World War. It is a grim tale of men who sacrificed their all in support of a nation that had colonized their homeland.
Throughout history, nations have used slavery, colonialism, twisted forms of recruitment, lies and various ways to get "battle fodder", or "B-Grade combatants" that wouldn't require too much compensation for their dirty work.This movie shows one such story: The story of North African men enrolling in the French forces to fight against the Nazis in WWII.
This is the story of a "band of brothers," Algerian Arabs fighting in the French army under French or pieds noirs (North African born French) cadres in World War II, a steadily dwindling unit fighting across the theaters of the war like the one in Fuller's 1980 The Big Red One, the film ending with a lone survivor as an old man, the actor, heavily made up, revisiting the battlefield cemetery à la Saving Private Ryan.
As it proves itself the company is moved from North Africa to Italy and then France, fighting its climactic battle, isolated into the platoon with the lead actors, even their pied noir sergeant disabled and near death, in a remote Alsatian village where all are wiped out but one in a dramatic battle against a much larger unit of Germans.Adopting Days of Glory as the English title loses half the point of the film.
This film is an excellent war movie that quietly asserts its outrage over the injustices committed to the North African soldiers which were recruited to fight in the name of Vive la France.
The days of glory illustrate a part of the history during the World War 2, when the French resistance commanded by general De Gaulle gathered a new army to fight with the allies, this new army was called 'les indigènes', they were men recruited from the countries occupied by the French empire.The movie shows how they participate in the liberation of the French Republic from the Nazis, and how during the war they suffered from injustice inside the army, they were "under feeded, not well dressed and not well trained" comparing to the French soldiers, in spite of they struggled believing the day of liberty is close.The idea to tell the story of those called 'les indigènes' was great, but not well exposed, the scenario and the emotions were poor, the whole movie was about the North African soldiers (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), especially the Algerian ones, certainly because of the background of the director who is originally from Algeria.The good thing about the movie was the music which was very interesting and very expressive, and the performance of the actors, great combination between the French language and the Arabic language.It is a nice movie after all, because it shows a historical reality unknown by many persons.--http://theearthdiary.blogspot.com/.
The story of a handful of Berber tribesmen from Algeria who enlist in the French Army during World War II and slog their way through North Africa, Italy, France, and Alsace in order to rid the world of Nazi occupiers.
The Germans march into town, taking no cover, and are picked off too easily by the North Africans.'Days of Glory' is a worthy addition to the pantheon of World War II films.
Saving Private Ryan was more about fighting during the Second World War, Days of Glory is more about the politics and society aspects of the Army.