Filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb, of Algerian descent, has a point to make about the debt of the French to the North African volunteers who, despite second-class treatment, helped liberate their "motherland" from Nazi occupation, a debt ignored at the time and still today. He makes the point frequently and clearly ("We're changing the destiny of France. Things must change for us, too"), but seldom entertainingly, depending overmuch upon current social and economic inequities to add piquancy to the routine troop maneuvers, on and off the battlefield. He exercises tighter control only once the Arabs have been whittled down to a final four, trying to hold on to an Alsatian village till the arrival of reinforcements. All throughout, Patrick Blossier's cinematography is exemplary, keeping the wide-screen image clean and tidy while working in near-monochrome, normally a slippery slope into mud and mush. Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila, Bernard Blancan. (2006) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.