
The true story of World War II's forgotten heroes
Plot outline
Personal notes
Cast
- Jamel Debbouze
- Samy Naceri
- Roschdy Zem
- Sami Bouajila
- Bernard Blancan
- Mathieu Simonet
- Assaad Bouab
- Benoît Giros
- Mélanie Laurent
- Antoine Chappey
- Aurélie Eltvedt
- Thomas Langmann
- Thibault de Montalembert
- Diouc Koma
- Philippe Beglia
- Momo Debbouze
- Abdelkim Bouchareb
- Abdelhamid Idjaini
- Abdeslam Arbaoui
- Francis Arnould
- Roger Arnould
- Omar Bekhaled
- Nadji Beida
- Julie De Bona
- Franck Bonetto
- Jean-Pierre Boudhar
- Allal Boukhari
- Abdelrahim Bouzine
- Ken Brekke
- Mylène Caverzazi
- Ben Aïssa El Jirari
- Emmanuel Georges
- José Gomez
- Othman Ilyassa
- Klaisel Kikouama
- Frédéric Lanoir
- Corentin Lobet
- Christophe Locatelli
- Naïma Macherouei
- Mohamed Majd
- Thierry Magnier
- Mourad Maimuni
- Mohamed Melouk
- Bernard Morin
- Mohamed Nesrate
- Antoine Pappalardo
- Fabien Parfait
- Vincent Paris
- Audrey Perrin
- Mathieu Schiffman
- Patrice Simon
- Pia Vuorinen
- Kevin Weiss
- Anton Yakovlev
Plots
During WWII, four North African men enlist in the French army to liberate that country from Nazi oppression, and to fight French discrimination.
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?
In World War II, the Muslims from French colonies enlist to fight for their motherland France. In the 7th battalion commanded by the tough Sergeant Roger Martinez, the soldier Abdelkader has leadership with the troop and seeks promotion and recognition from the command; Said Otmari is a servile and illiterate private, happy in serving his sergeant; Messaoud Souni is the sniper of the group and has fallen in a corresponded love with the French Irène; and Yassir is fighting together with his brother to raise some money. Along the campaign in Italy, France and Alsace, they realize that French soldiers are promoted, has better food and have leaves to visit their families, while the Arab soldiers are shamefully discriminated and treated like 2nd ranking soldiers.