Algeria, 1943, through Italy and France, to Alsace in early 1945, with a coda years later. North Africans volunteer to fight Germans 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 North African 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? Written by
Days of Glory
During WWII, four North African men enlist in the French army to liberate that country from German oppression, and to fight French discrimination.