Garnering multiple awards at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival – including an unprecedented award for its male ensemble cast – and screening to great acclaim at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival®, INDIGÈNES (previously titled DAYS OF GLORY) is a powerful and haunting film about the discrimination and prejudices encountered by North Africans who fought for France in the Second World War.
It is 1943 and France is occupied by the Germans. Desperate for more recruits, France looks to Algeria and Morocco for volunteers to liberate the “homeland” – a place none of these youngsters has ever seen. Poorly trained, the recruits encounter a bloody battle that baptizes them in the brutalities of war and the importance of duty.
As the war continues they are routinely denied both leave and promotions, and are treated as second-class soldiers. The film chronicles their courage as they travel from the burning sands of Morocco to the freezing winters of northern Italy and finally to a small French village, where their true heroism comes to the fore.
Rachid Bouchareb deftly draws on classical storytelling techniques to reveal the widely-ignored contributions and sacrifices of North African soldiers. The subtly nuanced performances of the cast, including Jamel Debbouze (AMÉLIE) and Roschdy Zem (LIVE AND BECOME), have elicited wide praise.
Epic in nature but intimate and humanistic in scope, the film brings a sense of personal intimacy to the fate of these estranged soldiers. Despite its often tragic subject matter, INDIGÈNES hearkens back to the golden age of filmmaking and reminds us why we love to go to the movies. |
