Days of Glory, directed by Rachid Bouchareb, is the English title of the French language film Indigènes (the derogatory name “Natives” given to the indigenous North Africans by the French). Bouchareb, born in Paris of North African origin, wants French filmviewers to know a part of their history that hitherto has not been prominent. The movie begins in 1943, when France is recruiting soldiers for the First French Army from the French colonies of Algeria and Morocco; indeed, half of the army was composed of Arabic-speaking Moslems as well as Africans from Sénégal. Despite their colonial status, the soldiers profess loyalty to France, their motherland, though one attraction is that they will be paid for their service after the war in the form of a pension. After very little training, they are sent to Italy in order to fight the Germans in a battle that resembles Iwo Jima. Many North Africans die, but those who live are reassigned to fight in France. When they arrive at Marseilles in 1944, they are greeted as heroes by French women. Irène (played by Aurélie Eltvedt) takes a fancy to Messaoud (played by Roschdy Zem), including a trip to her bedroom. The next assignment is to the Vosges Mountains, which are snowbound, and several more soldiers die when they trip a series of landmines. The final assignment, to which the stars of the film volunteer, is to enter Alsace in order to hold a town until a larger French company arrives to provide reinforcements for an American advance into Germany. Days of Glory, however, is not a conventional war film. The focus is on how French soldiers, including light-skinned French-born residents of North Africa, scorn dark-skinned loyal Moslem troops in the following ways: (1) An untrained Moslem soldier is assaulted by his superior, Sgt. Roger Martinez (played by Bernard Blancan), when he accidentally opens a hand grenade. (2) The Moslems are used as cannon fodder. (3) They are denied fresh tomatoes until one Moslem soldier protests that he is fighting for liberty, equality, and fraternity. (4) Although some are obviously qualified for promotion, notably Abdelkader (played by Sami Bouajila), they are not recognized for their bravery. (5) French soldiers are allowed home leave after battle, but not the North Africans. (6) Letters between Irène and Abdelkader are censored, leaving both frustrated that their love is unrequited. (7) After four Moslem soldiers hold back a platoon of Germans heroically, they (including the lone survivor, Abdelkader) are not the acknowledged heroes of the battle; instead, the credit goes to the French company that arrives after the Germans have been killed. The film ends in the year 2004, when Abdelkader visits the gravesites of his comrades in Alsace. A title then indicates that the pensions for which the many survivors risked their lives were frozen in 1959 on the eve of France’s granting of independence to its African colonies; by 2006, the amount was only one-third that of non-Moslems. The next title indicates that in 1992 parliament voted to restore full pensions to the veterans but that the French bureaucracy has never done so. However, after President Jacques Chirac and his wife previewed the film, she asked him to make a response; on the opening day of the film in France, Chirac ordered restoration of the pension to some 80,000 surviving veterans. Speaking to French filmviewers, the director clearly indicates that France also owes an unpaid debt of gratitude to the North Africans instead of continuing to treat them as second class citizens inside France. MH
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