Starring Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, and Roschdy Zem. In French and Arabic with English subtitles. Rated 14A. Opens Friday, February 23, at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas

The five male leads of Rachid Bouchareb’s Days of Glory (Indigí¨nes) star in an alternately tragic and empowering story about Arab soldiers fighting the Third Reich for a freedom in which they were then not permitted to share.

Within the first eight weeks of its commercial release, the film attracted almost three million viewers in France alone, many of whom were doubtless descendants of Muslim persuasion, tired of watching their role in contemporary society reduced to one of throwing stones at policemen and setting fire to parked cars. Days of Glory also prompted French President Jacques Chirac to reconsider the infamous French law—first passed in 1959—that froze the pensions of nonwhite veterans from colonial “possessions” that subsequently obtained independence.

Yes, cynics might say, no one denies that it’s a social phenomenon, but what is it like as a film?

Well, despite a few probably unavoidable clichés (such as an overly emblematic cast of characters and a climax that uncomfortably echoes the ending of Saving Private Ryan), the answer is, “Pretty good, actually.” Indeed, if Days of Glory initially seems overdetermined and insufficiently indignant about its characters’ fates, director Bouchareb and cowriter Olivier Lorelle gradually reveal the full injustice of what these brave, underappreciated men had to face. And what begins as a worthy duty concludes as a sad pleasure.

Although, like most war movies, Days of Glory ends with a memorable small-unit action, its initial battles involve large numbers of soldiers who are much better at stopping bullets than they are at delivering them. Only gradually does our field of interest narrow to a more limited cast.

This select group includes Saí¯d (the extraordinary one-armed superstar Jamel Debbouze), an illiterate peasant who is uncommonly attached to Sergeant Martinez (Bernard Blancan), a French noncom who is less of a European-Algerian than he seems. Other “squaddies” include Yassir (Samy Naceri of Luc Besson’s immensely popular Taxi franchise), an eagle-eyed sniper hopelessly in love with a Frenchwoman, and Messaoud (Roschdy Zem), the educated corporal who isn’t sure if he wants to become a colonel in the French army or build a new, independent Algeria.

The true pathos of Days of Glory occurs after the last shots have been fired. To watch the treatment of Alsace’s first Muslim liberators is truly heart-rending, not least because the prejudice is muted, not overt.

In this context, silence can be more powerful than a burning cross, and Days of Glory unquestionably winds up on a powerful note.