Days of Glory (2007)

Image credit: Days of Glory: Roger Arpajou

ESPRIT DE CORPS Glory's ensemble cast (including Jamel Debbouze, Roschdy Zem and Sami Bouajila, pictured) took honors at Cannes

Days of Glory, Rachid Bouchareb's great, important drama about North African soldiers fighting for France in World War II, has the contours of a traditional 1940s war pic, focused on the lives of individual soldiers in and out of battle. But the story Bouchareb tells is something no classic has tackled before — that of patriots fighting for a homeland that didn't treat them with égalité. (The picture has shamed the French government into granting pension increases.) The ensemble cast shared the best-actor award at the 2006 Cannes film festival — and rightly so.