
American moviegoers (me, especially) should be attracted to the film by Debbouse, my favorite one-handed actor, who is best known here for his role in Amelie, in which he played the handicapped grocery delivery boy, Lucien. He also appeared in Spike Lee'sShe Hate Me. Or, there's always the attraction of the war genre, which never gets old. Jay Weissberg at Variety points out in his review the comparison between this film and Glory, though, in that they both focus on peoples dealing with being treated as second-class soldiers rather than on action-packed battle scenes. Why were the North Africans being treated this way? They fought for the freedom of a country they've never seen and that was itself ruling over their own country. Obviously their allegiances were often questioned.
The release date hasn't been set but is expected to be sometime in late 2006. The film, which also won the François Chalis Award at Cannes (for "best film that captures life"), will get its North American premiere at Toronto next month.