Showing Senegal's WWII heroes

The star of a new film which centres on a group of Senegalese soldiers defending a family from the German army in World War II has said that he hopes the film can help "correct" French history to highlight the role African people played in the conflict.

Les Enfants Du Pays tells the story of an elderly man and his two grandchildren, who are the only three people left in a village in the Ardennes as the Germans prepare to invade France in 1940. A group of soldiers from Senegal - at the time a French colony - are sent to protect them.

Acclaimed actor William Nadylam - who plays the leader of the soldiers, known as the Tirailleurs Senegalais - told BBC World Service's On Screen programme that he felt France does not currently give enough credit to the role Africans played.

"The problem is that each black actor has to carry that burden of being a little bit of a historian," he said.

"Of course, I knew the story - it is part of my own personal story, people in my family fought in these wars, and we still live with the fact that French history doesn't mention that enough.

"It doesn't recognise us - the atrocities that were committed, and the sacrifices of these people."