Days of Glory (2006)

During WWII, four North African men enlist in the French army to liberate that country from Nazi oppression, and to fight French discrimination.

Director:

Rachid Bouchareb

Writers:

Rachid Bouchareb, Olivier Lorelle

Stars:

Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 9 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jamel Debbouze	...	Saïd Otmari
Samy Naceri	...	Yassir
Roschdy Zem	...	Messaoud Souni
Sami Bouajila	...	Abdelkader
Bernard Blancan	...	Sergent Roger Martinez
Mathieu Simonet	...	Caporal Leroux
Assaad Bouab	...	Larbi
Benoît Giros	...	Capitaine Durieux
Mélanie Laurent	...	Margueritte village Vosges
Antoine Chappey	...	Le colonel
Aurélie Eltvedt	...	Irène
Thomas Langmann	...	Le journaliste
Thibault de Montalembert	...	Capitaine Martin
Diouc Koma	...	Touré
Philippe Beglia	...	Rambert

Storyline

Algeria, 1943, through Italy and France, to Alsace in early 1945, with a coda years later. Arabs volunteer to fight Nazis to liberate France, their motherland. We follow Saïd, dirt poor, an orderly for a grizzled sergeant, Martinez, a pied noir with some willingness to speak up for his Arab troops; Messaoud, a crack shot, who in Province falls in love with a French woman who loves him back; and Abdelkader, a corporal, a budding intellectual with a keen sense of injustice. The men fight with courage against a backdrop of small and large indignities: French soldiers get better food, time for leave, and promotions. Is the promise of liberty, equality, and fraternity hollow?

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Plot Keywords:

year 1944 | year 1943 | arab | french soldier | muslim | 

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Taglines:

The true story of World War II's forgotten heroes

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Genres:

Action | Drama | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for war violence and brief language

Did You Know?

Trivia

The main actors, all of North African descent, did not know of France's discrimination towards foreign soldiers serving in the French army during World War 2 until filming began.

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Goofs

When Yassir enters the village before the final battle, he is carrying a Thompson M1A1 sub-machine gun, then between shots it changes back and fourth to a M1928 Thompson sub-machine gun.

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Connections

Featured in Indigenes: Le making of (2006)

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Soundtracks

Ya Dzayer
(version 1)
Written by Armand Amar
Performed by Khaled

User Reviews

Generic War Film

There's two types of French film .

1 ) The sort that is beloved by Cahiers Du Cinema that often feature people standing about talking about existentialist themes and often don't find a market outside France

2 ) The sort that is despised by Cahiers Du Cinema that often feature action and plot and appeal to an international market

DAYS OF GLORY is certainly in the second camp . The problem is that it's a bit too international . The theme of colonial soldiers fighting for the mother country could have easily have featured British dominion troops fighting in the Boer war , of Indian troops fighting at El Alamein or even of black Americans fighting in the second world war . Some people on this page have criticised this movie as not being a Gallic version of GLORY and you can see their point . There's little in the way of an idiosyncratic voice

Worse still despite the subtitles you could easily be watching a war film that was made in Hollywood . Much of the plot could have easily been lifted from Sam Fuller's THE BIG RED ONE as the story jumps from North Africa , Italy and eventually France . It's also impossible not to notice that the final climatic battle owes a lot to the climax of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN . Perhaps that's why DAYS OF GLORY received high praise down to its familiar story that English speaking fans of war films have seen so many times before ?

It could have been much worse though . On a technical level it's a competent enough movie and it doesn't go overboard that the Goumier troops are some how slaves press-ganged in to joining the Free French forces but it does effectively ignore the sometimes horrendous reputation Goumier troops had in Axis territories where women are concerned . The 1960 Italian film TWO WOMEN goes in to this in detail and you can imagine that's why the protagonists service in Italy is skated over very slightly . One wonders if the producers might have been worried about an international audience being alienated by bringing up the subject in any length ? As it it stands DAYS OF GLORY is a good enough war film though very traditional

Details

Country:

Algeria France Morocco Belgium

Language:

French Arabic

Release Date:

27 September 2006 (France)

Also Known As:

Days of Glory

Filming Locations:

Agadir, Morocco

Box Office

Budget:

EUR14,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,996, 10 December 2006

Gross USA:

$320,700

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$22,963,701

Company Credits

Production Co:

Tessalit Productions, Kiss Films, France 2 Cinéma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min 123 min (Ontario) 120 min 128 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Black and White Black and White (archive footage) Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1