Le Film Indigènes et le Modèle Républicain

Abstract

The film Indigènes (2006) by Rachid Bouchareb, featuring prominent North African actors Jamal Debbouze, Samy Naciri, Sami Bouajila and Roschdy Zem, offers an original reading of the World War II liberation from the Nazis (1943–45) and shows an important moment in immigration history, the contribution of North African soldiers in the liberation of the homeland. This article focuses on the importance of the film in the current political conjuncture in France, showing how it participated in the rewriting of the republic’s history in proposing a historical alternative to the dominant discourse. The film contributes to redefining the impact of a new generation of North Africans on the development of cinema in France by putting into perspective an important moment forgotten by official historiography. Indigènes also participates in the reappropriation of a collective memory and contributes to the development of a universal body of knowledge. It allows actors of a new generation of French people of African origin to move from the periphery towards the centre of symbolic representation by decoding and delegitimizing a number of stereotypes about citizens of North African descent.