Foreign Movie Review: DAYS OF GLORY (2007) B

French: Subtitles

Days Of Glory is a standard WWII movie that  describes a group of mostly Muslim soldiers from the French possessions in North Africa who volunteered to fight with the Allies against the Axis forces. It shows the French treating them as second rate citizens although they pledged their allegiance to France.  Somewhat similar to how the black soldiers in the US Army at the time were treated. These men fought in battles that included the liberation of Italy, Provence, the Alps, the Rhone Valley, and Alsace.

The time period: 1944-1945.  The French Army surrendered in 1940 and a puppet "Vichy" Government was set up.   To counter this action, DeGaulle created the French 1st Army which recruited men in Africa to sidestep the German occupiers of France and the officials of the Vichy regime. It included 200,000 men, including 130,000 "natives" comprising 110,000 North Africans and 20,000 Black African. The rest of the force was made up of French North Africans and of young Frenchmen who had fled the Occupation. This movie was made to document the forgotten story of the so-called "native" soldiers.