A pension for a French veteran amounts to some 430 euros a month, while an ex-soldier from Cambodia receives 16 euros, the Gisti support group for immigrants estimates. The veterans’ pensions were frozen in 1959 by the then president, Charles de Gaulle, when France was giving independence to its colonies.

France’s approach to its colonial legacy became an issue of controversy after a 2005 law urged teachers to stress the “positive role of the French presence overseas”.

Critics of the law asked whether France, whose empire ended in bloody wars in Indochina and Algeria, had learned anything from its colonial past. Chirac ordered the repeal of the contested article after weeks of heated debate.

Indigenes, whose ensemble male cast won the best actor category at the Cannes film festival this year, tells the tale of a group of friends from northern and western Africa who support French troops in their fight against the Nazis.

They battle passionately to defend the “French motherland”, a territory they had never set foot in before, but face unequal treatment and daily humiliation within the French army. “It’s good that a director is dealing with the issue,” said Bernard Aubree from Gisti. “But I find it bizarre that we had to wait for this film to wake up the state and public opinion.”