Land of Mine

Land of Mine (Danish: Under sandet, lit. 'Under the Sand') is a 2015 historical war drama film directed by Martin Zandvliet. It was shown in the Platform section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.[3] It was selected and nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 89th Academy Awards.[4][5][6]

Land of Mine
Theatrical release poster
Under sandet
Directed byMartin Zandvliet
Screenplay byMartin Zandvliet
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyCamilla Hjelm Knudsen
Edited by
  • Per Sandholt
  • Molly Malene Stensgaard
Music bySune Martin
Distributed byNordisk Film
Release dates
  • 10 September 2015 (2015-09-10) (TIFF)
  • 3 December 2015 (2015-12-03) (Denmark)
Running time
90 minutes
Countries
  • Denmark
  • Germany
Languages
  • German
  • Danish
  • English
BudgetDKK 35.5 million[1]
Box officeDKK 22.4 million[2]

The film is inspired by real events[7] and tells a story of German prisoners of war ordered to clear land mines in Denmark after World War II (in reality there were no prisoners of war involved in the clearance and no Danish officers directed or ordered German soldiers during the operation). It is estimated that more than 2,000 soldiers including a number of teenagers, under the command of German officers, removed mines. 169 of them lost their lives during the five months of mine clearing, 165 were severely wounded and 167 lightly wounded.[8] The removal was part of a controversial agreement between the German Commander General Georg Lindemann, the Danish Government and the British Armed Forces, under which German soldiers with experience in defusing mines would be in charge of clearing the mine fields.[9][10]

Plot

Following the end of World War II in Europe and the liberation of Denmark from German occupation in May 1945, the Wehrmacht and SS occupiers became prisoners of war. Returning to the Danish Army after service in the British Parachute Regiment, sergeant Carl Leopold Rasmussen furiously beats up a German prisoner for carrying a Danish flag.[11] A group of young German prisoners are handed over to Rasmussen's commanding officer Captain Ebbe Jensen and sent to the west coast, where they are trained to use their bare hands to remove the mines that the Germans had buried in the sand. They are warned not to expect any sympathy from the Danes, who resent their former occupiers. Rasmussen shares this contempt and is determined to treat the young prisoners without sympathy.

Rasmussen is rude to and contemptuous of them and the neighbouring farm treats them with hostility. After marching his squad onto the dunes, he promises that they will return home in three months, if they can each defuse six mines per hour for a total of 45,000 mines. Rasmussen's hostility begins to recede slightly and the boys' leader Sebastian Schumann attempts to remain optimistic as they discuss their plans for when they return home. The POWs are not given food due to post-war shortages and begin to suffer from malnourishment, with Ernst befriending a young local girl to steal some bread from her. The optimistic Wilhelm's arms are blown off and he dies in a field hospital. Most of the boys are poisoned by rat faeces in grain that they find on a nearby farm; they are treated by Rasmussen who makes them purge themselves with seawater.

Rasmussen begins to treat his charges more kindly, stealing food from the base for them and tries to maintain morale by reporting that Wilhelm has survived. He also allows the boys to use a device invented by Sebastian to improve productivity. Hearing rumours of Rasmussen stealing food for the boys, Ebbe brings a group of British soldiers to abuse and torment the boys. Rasmussen stops them but is confronted about the theft by Ebbe, who accuses him of being sympathetic towards the Germans. Werner is blown to bits after encountering landmines buried one above another and his twin brother Ernst goes to search for him and continues to deny his death even after being comforted by Rasmussen.

After a casual game of football, Rasmussen's dog is blown up in a supposedly cleared zone of the beach. This causes Rasmussen to snap and begin abusing the boys again. He forces them to march close together across the cleared zones of the beach to confirm that they are safe. When a young local girl walks out into an uncleared area of beach, her mother comes looking for Rasmussen only to find him gone. The boys volunteer to help save the girl. Ernst walks through the uncleared minefield to keep the little girl calm whilst Sebastian clears a path to safety for her. They manage to rescue her but instead of returning to safety with Sebastian, Ernst decides he cannot go on without his twin brother and commits suicide by walking backwards into the uncleared section and dies promptly.

After witnessing this act of kindness and bravery from the boys, Rasmussen relents in his treatment of them and reassures a grieving Sebastian that they will soon be able to go home. While four of the boys continue to clear the beach with Rasmussen, the rest of them are loading unexploded mines onto a truck. When one of the boys tosses a mine that was not properly defused onto the truckbed of deactivated mines, he accidentally sets off a massive chain reaction and kills himself and his comrades standing nearby. Only Sebastian, Ludwig, Helmut and Rodolf remain.

Although the boys had been promised that they would be sent home after defusing all of the mines, without Rasmussen's knowledge Jensen decides to send the surviving four to join a team defusing landmines without the aid of a map in another coastal area. He informs Rasmussen, who argues in vain for Jensen to rescind the order. Rasmussen decides to go against orders and rescues them, driving them within 500 metres of the German border and they obey his order to run to their freedom.

Cast
  • Roland Møller as Sgt. Carl Leopold Rasmussen
  • Mikkel Boe Følsgaard as Captain Ebbe Jensen
  • Laura Bro as Karin
  • Louis Hofmann as Sebastian Schumann
  • Joel Basman as Feldwebel Helmut Morbach
  • Oskar Bökelmann as Ludwig Haffke
  • Emil Belton as Ernst Lessner
  • Oskar Belton as Werner Lessner
  • Leon Seidel as Wilhelm LeBern
  • Karl Alexander Seider as Manfred
  • Maximilian Beck as August Kluger
  • August Carter as Rodolf Selke
  • Tim Bülow as Hermann Marklein
  • Alexander Rasch as Friedrich Schnurr
  • Julius Kochinke as Johann Wolff
  • Zoe Zandvliet as Elizabeth

Production

Filming began in July 2014 and ended in August 2014. The film was shot at historically authentic locations, including in Oksbøllejren and areas in Varde. The use of the historical beaches led to the discovery of a real live mine during the production.[12]

Reception

Critical response

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 92% "Certified Fresh" rating, with an average score of 7.44/10, based on reviews from 107 critics. The website's critical consensus states: "Land of Mine uses an oft-forgotten chapter from the aftermath of World War II to tell a hard-hitting story whose period setting belies its timeless observations about bloodshed and forgiveness."[13] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[14]

The film gained a standing ovation at the Toronto International Film Festival,[15] with Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter stating "Director Martin Zandvliet has come up with a fresh and compelling approach to this well-traveled territory"[16] and David D'Arcy of the Screendaily stating "Land of Mine achieves moments of chilling suspense in scenes of untrained soldiers defusing mines by hand and in the bloody bodies that leap into the air when the boys fail".[17] Domestically it received 5 out of 6 stars from a number of critics, who all stated it was the best Danish film of the year.[18][19][20][21] It was selected to play at Sundance in 2016.[22][23]

Accolades

Land of Mine has also won numerous awards, including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Danish Film at the Bodil Awards.[24]

Year Award Category Recipient(s) Result Ref(s)
2015 Gijón International Film Festival Audience Award Land of Mine Won
2015 Hamburg Film Festival Art Cinema Award Land of Mine Nominated
2015 Tokyo International Film Festival Tokyo Grand Prix Land of Mine Nominated
2015 Best Actor Award Roland Møller & Louis Hofmann Won
2015 Toronto International Film Festival Platform Prize Land of Mine Nominated
2016 AFI Fest World Cinema Audience Award Land of Mine Won [12]
2016 Bodil Awards Best Danish Film Land of Mine Won [25]
2016 Best Actor Roland Møller Won
2016 Best Supporting Actor Louis Hofmann Won
2016 European Film Awards Best Cinematographer Camilla Hjelm Knudsen Won [26]
2016 Best Costume Design Stefanie Bieker Won
2016 Best Hair and Make-up Barbara Kreuzer Won
2016 Gothenburg Film Festival Best Nordic Film Land of Mine Won [27]
2016 Hong Kong International Film Festival SIGNIS Awards Land of Mine Won [28]
2016 Miskolc International Film Festival Adolph Zukor Prize Land of Mine Won [29]
2016 International Federation of Film Critics Award Land of Mine Won
2016 International Ecumenical Award Land of Mine Won
2016 Mill Valley Film Festival World Cinema Audience Favorite Land of Mine 2nd Place [30]
2016 Nordic Council Nordic Council Film Prize Land of Mine Nominated [31]
2016 Rotterdam International Film Festival Warsteiner Audience Award Land of Mine Won [32][33]
2016 MovieZone Award Land of Mine Won
2016 Sydney Film Festival Audience Award Land of Mine 2nd Place
2016 Sydney Film Prize Land of Mine Nominated
2017 Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film Land of Mine Nominated [34][35]
2018 Australian Film Critics Association Best International Film (Foreign Language) Land of Mine Nominated [36]

See also

References
  1. "Nordisk Film & TV Fond Jumps On Zandvliet's Land of Mine". Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  2. "Land of Mine (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  3. "Toronto International Film Festival Announces Inaugural Platform Lineup". IndieWire. 13 August 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  4. "War film submitted as Denmark's Oscar entry". CPH Post. 19 September 2016. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  5. Roxborough, Scott (19 September 2016). "Oscars: Denmark Selects 'Land of Mine' for Foreign-Language Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  6. Samuelson, Kate (24 January 2017). "Here Are the 2017 Oscar Nominations". Time. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  7. Evans, Roly (2018). "Lessons from the Past: The Rapid Clearance of Denmark's Minefields in 1945".
  8. John V. Jensen: Landminer ved Vestkysten, 1943–2012.In: danmarkshistorien.dk. 4. Mai 2020
  9. "UNDER SANDET – NY FILM AF MARTIN ZANDVLIET" (in Danish). Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  10. Journalist, Eva Lange Jørgensen (3 December 2015). "Historiker roser 'Under Sandet' selv om der skrues "liiige lovligt meget på drama-knappen"". Politiken. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  11. "Danish postwar drama Land of Mine tells a little known story". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  12. AFI. "Award Winners – Land of Mine". AFI Fest. Archived from the original on 3 March 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  13. Land of Mine at Rotten Tomatoes
  14. Land of Mine at Metacritic
  15. Monggaard, Christian (11 September 2015). "Giant Canadian Hug" (in Danish). Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  16. Farber, Stephen (10 September 2015). "'Land of Mine': TIFF Review". The Hollywood Review. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  17. D'Arcy, David. "'Land Of Mine': Review". ScreenDaily (in Danish). Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  18. "Review: Land of Mine" (in Danish). Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  19. Olsen, Jesper. "Review" (in Danish). Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  20. Carlsen, Per Juul (3 December 2015). "A Kick in the Head for National Feeling" (in Danish). Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  21. Kastrup, Kim (8 December 2015). "Land of Mine is Number 1" (in Danish). Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  22. "SUNDANCE INSTITUTE COMPLETES FEATURE FILM LINEUP FOR 2016 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL". Sundance. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  23. "LAND OF MINE HEADING TO SUNDANCE". Archived from the original on 21 February 2016. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  24. /ritzau/ (5 March 2016). "Bodil Party: Post war drama wins big". b.dk (in Danish). Berlinske. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  25. "Bodil Awards 2016". Bodilprisen.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  26. "European Film Awards Winners". Variety. 10 December 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  27. Göteborg Film Festival. "Winner 2016: Land of Mine at Folkteatern". giff.se. Archived from the original on 6 February 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  28. HKIFF Society. "Awards – The 40th Hong Kong International Film Festival". 40.hkiff.org.hk. Archived from the original on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  29. CineFest. "Price Winners". Cinefest.hu. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  30. California Film Institute (18 October 2016). "MVFF39 Audience Awards". mvff.com. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  31. Nordic Council. "Nominees for the Nordic Council Film Prize 2016". norden.org. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  32. International Film Festival Rotterdam. "Moviezone Award". iffr.com. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  33. International Film Festival Rotterdam. "Warsteiner Audience Award". iffr.com. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  34. Nordyke, Kimberly (24 January 2017). "Oscars: 'La La Land' Ties Record With 14 Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  35. "Oscar Nominations: Complete List". Variety. 24 January 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  36. "The 2018 AFCA Awards". Australian Film Critics Association. Archived from the original on 14 March 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
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