Indigenes (Days of Glory)--- Algerian film on Colonial Soldiers in World War 2

 Indigenes / Days of Glory 2006

by

Rachid Bouchareb

Without the numbers and whole-hearted support of the brave colonial soldiers, French armed resistance would have next to nothing in the Second War. It was the Arabs, mostly the Algerians, who came forward to help De Gaulle when France was down and out. 

But the French did not treat the colonials at par with their own own. Discrimination and racism was rife. They hid their own, and put the colonials in forward positions to face bullets. When it came to entering Paris towards the end of the war, De Gaulle made sure that those entering Paris were from Free French forces, and predominantly white. 

Days of Glory is a great story of one such unit which has Algerian soldiers fighting for the motherland, that they have never seen.After the War, the discrimination continued, and in 1959, pensions for the colonials whose countries were about to get independent, were frozen.In 2002, the pensions were unfreezed, but successive French governments have not been regular with payments. Arrears of 40 years were not paid. The Superpower sucked the life blood of the colonials. The so-called custodian of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity has been most exploitative towards the colonies.

INDIGENES was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars, but lost out to The Lives of Others.