MovieChat Forums > Indigènes (2006) Discussion > Many errors about this movie...

Many errors about this movie...

posted 18 years ago by JohnnyFrench
3 replies | jump to latest

Many people here (like Mike White) didn't understand some essential points of this movie.

-Sergeant Martinez (Bernard Blancan) is NOT moroccan. He's a "pied-noir" (french colonist in North Africa, although his mother was arabic). He's not an "indigène" so the point about his "colonial" masters is just absurd because he's himself one of them.

-Simplistic interpretations : the film doesn't try to put France in trial about the colonization. It is rememberance of these more or less forgotten soldiers of the former french Empire and calls to reconciliation, as declared Jamel Debbouze himself. Notice the french officers are not cowards here, and many metropolitan french soldiers are shown. They're just not the point of the film.

So, this film is not a support for any kind of french bashing.

[–] szisoman 17 years ago

I understood that Martinez was mixed, perhaps he was a bastard son, but you could see how he did not like the north africans to speak out so much but at the same time , he was sympathetic. He was in the middle between the indigenes & the colonials, does not fully belong to either side, hence his anger when Said mentions his north african mother & his reluctance to speak arabic. the performance of all the actors was superb.

" I am talking about..ethics "

[–] jerry4444 15 years ago

Good stuff, I agree.

[–] sillyhat 13 years ago

Yes, it's important to note that a few times in the movie, it's made clear that the pecking order has Metropolitan French soldiers on top, followed by the Pied-Noirs (like Martinez), and then the Indigenes. The Pieds-Noirs often felt, in general, that their Metropolitan counterparts looked down upon them. This sentiment continued during and after the Algerian war (where they often felt abandoned by their country).