The film operates within a traditional mid-century military framework. The narrative focuses on male camaraderie and the shared struggle of the tirailleurs, with no documented presence of non-cisnormative identities.

Driven almost exclusively by male characters, the film reinforces traditional masculine leadership roles. Women appear in peripheral roles without subverting the established gender hierarchies of the 1940s combat setting.

The film disrupts conventional liberation narratives by centering a majority North African cast. It effectively uses these soldiers to expose the systemic segregation and racial hierarchies within the French military.

This anti-colonial narrative critiques Western institutional hypocrisy. It portrays the friction between the soldiers' loyalty to France and the oppressive colonial structures maintained by the state.

Physical injuries are depicted as realistic markers of combat brutality. However, the film does not prioritize the lived experience of disability or neurodivergence as a central identity.