What is Essentialism

Rachid Bouchareb's movie Indigènes (aka Days of Glory, 2006) constitutes a powerful critique of the discourse of orientalism in significant ways that requires consideration. The chapter presents a descriptive and critical analysis of ambivalent positions during colonial encounters in the Second World War and analyses the totalizing and monist nature of the logocentric regime of meaning in the construction of a colonial orientalist discourse where knowledge and power enter into an agreement of sorts. The chapter throws light on ways in which Eurocentric history writing undermines the colonial soldiers' struggle for recognition and opens up a vista onto the critical role of post-colonial cinema in giving the invisible subjects' their due in history and popular media.