Abstract
Although it deals primarily with events that happened sixty years ago, Rachid Bouchareb's film Indigenes (2006) is in every sense a sign of the times. The movie could not have been funded without the meteoric rise of its most prominent star, Jamel Debbouze, whose popularity was also crucial in ensuring the film's box office success. In addition, Indigenes capitalized upon and helped to influence major public debates within France about the nation's colonial past and contemporary postcolonial immigrant minorit ies. In highlighting the role played by North African colonial troops in the liberation of France during World War II, the movie helped to persuade President Chirac to end a long-standing injustice whereby veterans in former colonies have been receiving lower pensions than their former comrades in arms in France. The promotion of Indigenes was also used to press the case for fairer treatment of African immigrant minorities in contemporary France.
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