Christopher Nolan’s film has been accused of diminishing the role of France’s troops

The film Dunkirk is under attack in France for glorifying British prowess while neglecting French troops whose sacrifice made the epic evacuation possible.

Historians and critics have voiced annoyance over what they see as Christopher Nolan’s rewriting of the defeat of Allied forces in which 30,000 French troops held off Nazi divisions near Lille in the late spring of 1940 to protect Operation Dynamo in the Channel.

In Russia, which had a non-aggression pact with Hitler at the time, the film has been mocked as a celebration of British cowardice.

The Dunkirk retreat is not taught in schools in France and is largely unknown, so reviewers there are recounting the event and explaining its role in the modern British mentality through the prism of Brexit.