World War II—that cataclysmic conflagration which shaped the very foundations of the modern international order, an edifice now visibly fraying at the edges—remains an inexhaustible wellspring for filmmakers. The conflict's sheer magnitude and moral complexity permit endless reinterpretation, particularly through perspectives that decades of cinema have systematically obscured or ignored. Among the more compelling examples of this recuperative approach is Days of Glory (Indigènes), the 2006 epic war drama written and directed by the French-Algerian filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb.
The film's original French title, Indigènes, carries considerable historical ballast. Literally meaning "Indigenous," this was the official French military designation for troops drawn from the vast colonial empire—men who fought and died in numerous twentieth-century conflicts, including both World Wars, yet whose contributions were habitually marginalised in the national consciousness. Bouchareb's choice to restore this terminology to prominence signals his broader intention: to excavate a buried chapter of French history and thrust it, however belatedly, into the light.
The narrative commences in 1943, three years after France's catastrophic collapse and occupation by Nazi Germany. Whilst metropolitan France languished under German control, the colonial administration in North Africa—having thrown its lot in with the Free French following the Allied landings—embarked upon an ambitious recruitment drive to assemble the forces that would eventually liberate the mainland. The plot centres upon four volunteers who enlist in the 7th Algerian Tirailleurs Regiment: Saïd Otmari (Jamel Debbouze), an illiterate goat herder escaping crushing poverty; Messoud Souni (Roschdy Zem), a gifted marksman harbouring dreams of post-war emigration; Abdelkader (Sami Bouajila), a literate corporal whose ambitions extend to earning his stripes as a sergeant; and Yassir (Sami Nacery), a Moroccan who joined the irregular goumiers specifically to help his brother Larbi (Assaad Bouab) accumulate sufficient funds for marriage. Overseeing their training is Sergeant Roger Martinez (Bernard Blancan), a battle-hardened pied-noir whose gruff exterior conceals the secret of his own mixed parentage.
The film subsequently traces their progression through the war's latter stages. In the spring of 1944, equipped with American materiel as part of the French Expeditionary Corps, they see their baptism of fire during the Italian campaign, capturing a German mountain stronghold at grievous cost. Several months thereafter, reconstituted as the French 1st Army, they participate in the landings along France's southern coast, where they are greeted—somewhat ambiguously—as liberators. Yet this reception is tinged with the racial prejudice they encounter both from the civilian population and from their own French officers. By January 1945, contending with winter conditions for which their North African constitutions have left them ill-prepared, they volunteer for a perilous mission behind enemy lines to relieve beleaguered American forces in the Upper Vosges Mountains, becoming the first Free French troops to liberate Alsace.
As a purely martial spectacle, Days of Glory proves satisfactory without ever achieving genuine distinction. An international co-production benefiting from the cooperation of the Royal Moroccan Army, the film delivers one genuinely impressive battle sequence, yet its climactic confrontation in a French village resembles little more than an elaborate skirmish—albeit one that proves devastatingly bloody for our protagonists.
Bouchareb, who has clearly absorbed lessons from contemporary action cinema, nonetheless ensures this final showdown resonates because he has by this point constructed a sufficiently diverse ensemble of characters whose ultimate fates command genuine viewer investment. However, approximately midway through, the film shifts emphasis from combat to character drama. This transition might have proved more effective were it not for the rather predictable trajectory of events: these men, summoned to liberate their ostensible "motherland," find themselves subjected to systematic discrimination, casual bigotry, and institutional injustice. French military censors deliberately intercept Messoud's correspondence with his French girlfriend Irène (Aurélie Eltvedt), whilst Abdelkader, demonstrably qualified for advancement, finds his promotion to sergeant arbitrarily blocked.
The principal motivation driving Bouchareb—himself of Maghrebi heritage—was evidently to rectify a profound historical injustice: France's persistent refusal to properly acknowledge and honour the sacrifices made by its North African colonial subjects in the cause of the Republic's liberation. The closing titles drive this point home with devastating clarity, noting how post-war French governments, exploiting the pretext of decolonisation, ceased paying pensions to which these colonial veterans were legally entitled. Bouchareb sharpens this indictment through bitter irony: his protagonists fight ostensibly for freedom whilst themselves living under foreign rule, a contradiction crystallised in a German propaganda leaflet urging Maghrebi soldiers to defect and join the Nazis "in liberation of Africa."
Days of Glory arrived at a politically propitious moment. The film premiered amidst the ongoing Global War on Terror, at a time when France itself was still reeling from the unexpectedly strong showing of far-right anti-immigrant candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen in the 2002 presidential election. Its message—a clear repudiation of both—played exceptionally well with generally left-leaning critics. The film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival generated considerable acclaim, with its five principal actors—Debbouze, Nacery, Zem, Bouajila, and Blancan—collectively receiving the Best Actor award. The film subsequently enjoyed robust commercial success, a phenomenon partly attributable to the substantial audiences of young Maghrebi origin who suddenly discovered a Second World War film featuring heroes with whom they could genuinely identify. It was later nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, though the Academy ultimately favoured the politically safer and less explicitly confrontational The Lives of Others.
Yet the film was not without its shortcomings. Several historians noted that Bouchareb largely sidestepped certain less savoury aspects of Maghrebi participation in the conflict, most notably the notorious "Marocchinate" of 1944 in Italy—mass atrocities committed by colonial troops that provided the central narrative element of the 1961 Italian drama Two Women. To his credit, Bouchareb does allude to this thorny subject through the words of a French officer who, prior to the Italian deployment, warns his goumiers against "touching women"—a fleeting acknowledgment of darker realities that the film otherwise declines to explore.
In 2010, Bouchareb returned to this territory with Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi), an epic drama functioning as a spiritual sequel to Days of Glory. Reuniting with much of the original cast, this subsequent work traced the Algerian struggle for independence, thereby completing a diptych examining the fraught relationship between France and its North African populations across the mid-twentieth century. Together, these films constitute a significant, if imperfect, contribution to the ongoing project of revising our understanding of the Second World War and those countless individuals whose sacrifices official histories have too often neglected to properly commemorate.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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