Indigènes

One of the perqs of Maggie's babysitting gigs across the courtyard is that she's allowed to borrow DVDs from her employers. Saturday night, we watched one of those DVDs: Indigènes (2006), an Algerian film directed by Rachid Bouchareb, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film and won at Cannes for Best Male Performance. You might recognize one of the stars, Jamel Debbouze, from his role in Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001).

The film takes place during World War II and follows the Free French African colonial forces as they battle the dual scourges of Nazism and the racism of their white commanders. In certain ways it's the French/Algerian version of Glory, since it draws attention to the sacrifices made by oppressed peoples in the name of the ideals of liberty, fraternity, and equality. But it goes farther than Glory by bringing the moral into the present, revealing that France continued to discriminate publicly against inhabitants of its former colonies. Two months after it came out, the French government changed its position on awarding pensions to colonial veterans of World War II, completing the film's trifecta of success (critical, commercial, and political/social).

You'll have to ask Maggie what she thought, but I give it 3.5 stars.