Saints and Soldiers/Days of Glory

Double bill of World War II dramas. In 'Saints and Soldiers' (2003), set in Belgium in December 1944, German troops open fire on unarmed American prisoners of war, provoking the historic Malmedy Massacre.

Four soldiers, trapped behind enemy lines, discover a stranded R.A.F. pilot who holds the key to German intelligence which could save thousands of American lives.

The five men must battle through the bitter winter landscape to smuggle their precious cargo from the clutches of the enemy. 'Days of Glory' (2007), directed by Rachid Bouchareb, depicts the plight of the North African troops enlisted to fight in the French army between 1943 and 1945.

Despite the fact that the four young Arabs around whom the story centres have, in effect, been called up by one colonial oppressor to fight another, they say goodbye to their families in Algeria, Morocco and Senegal and willingly step forward to take up their arms.

But all find themselves shockingly discriminated against by bigots within the French army, and deprived of the few rights and privileges to which new recruits are entitled.

Bouchareb's powerful and persuasive film was instrumental in French prime minister Jacques Chirac's decision to compensate all North Africans who fought in World War II by unfreezing their pensions.