Days of Glory / Indigènes (Algeria, Belgium, France, Morocco)

Directed by Rachid Bouchareb

2006, 120 min.

In French and Arabic with English subtitles

The festival opens with the highly acclaimed World War II drama Days of Glory/Indigènes, winner of the Best Actor prize (for ensemble acting) at Cannes Film Festival in 2006 and Oscar nominee for best foreign language film in 2007. This extraordinary film tells the story of the more than one hundred thousand "indigenous soldiers" who fought for France against the Nazis, whom the history books have largely forgotten. The film focuses on a small group of soldiers from Algeria and other French colonies in North Africa who choose to fight for the French, each for his own reason. The film follows them over the course of a year through Italy and across France into Alsace, where they find themselves alone fighting to save a village against German assault. Days of Glory created a firestorm in France by highlighting the struggle of "non-French" veterans of World War II to receive their pensions from the government.

Rated R for combat violence and some profanity.

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