Land of Mine


Land of Mine is a 2015 Danish-German historical drama war film directed by Martin Zandvliet. It was shown in the Platform section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. It was selected and nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 89th Academy Awards.
The film is inspired by real events and tells the story of German prisoners of war sent to clear land mines in Denmark after World War II. It is estimated that over two thousand German soldiers, including numerous teenagers, under the command of German officers but against the Geneva Conventions, removed mines, nearly half of them being either killed or wounded. 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. Historians have criticised the film for showing German soldiers clearing mines under the command of Danish officers, which never happened.

Plot

Following the end of World War II in Europe and the liberation of Denmark from German occupation in May 1945, the defeated Wehrmacht evacuates the country. A Danish sergeant, Carl Leopold Rasmussen, furiously beats up a German prisoner of war for carrying a Danish flag. A group of young German prisoners are handed over to the Danish Army and sent to the west coast, where they are trained to remove the mines that the Germans had buried in the sand. Rasmussen forces the boys to perform the dangerous work with their bare hands. They are warned not to expect any sympathy from the Danes, who resent their former occupiers. Rasmussen shares this contempt and he is determined to treat the young prisoners without sympathy.
Rasmussen is rude to and contemptuous of them and the neighbouring household 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 begins to grow conflicted in his feelings and Sebastian Schumann, leader of the boys, attempts to remain optimistic; the boys discuss their plans for when they return home.
The POWs are not given food due to postwar shortages and some begin to suffer from malnourishment. The optimistic Wilhelm's arms are blown off and he dies in a field hospital. After stealing animal fodder from the nearby farm, the boys are poisoned by rat droppings and Rasmussen forces them to purge themselves with seawater. Afterwards, he begins to treat them more kindly, stealing food from the base for them and reporting that Wilhelm has survived, to maintain morale. He also allows the boys to use a device invented by Sebastian to improve productivity. While clearing the beach, one of the boys forgets to separate a mine's plunger from the detonator. After Rasmussen stops a group of Allied soldiers from urinating on one of the boys, Ebbe 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, who is in denial, is comforted by Rasmussen.
After a casual game of football, Rasmussen's dog is blown up in a supposedly safe 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. He relents after seeing Ernst save a little girl from the minefield and then commit suicide by walking onto uncleared sand. He reassures a grieving Sebastian that they will soon be able to return. While four of the boys continue to clear the beach of mines, a live mine is accidentally tossed onto a truckload of deactivated mines, setting off a massive chain reaction and killing the other seven. 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, Ebbe informs Rasmussen that he has ordered the surviving four to be sent to another area, to join a team defusing landmines without the aid of a map. Rasmussen argues with Ebbe but he refuses to rescind the order. Rasmussen rescues them, drives them within 500 meters of the German border and orders them to run to their freedom.

Cast

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.

Reception

Critical response

Land of Mine received critical acclaim. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 91% "Certified Fresh" rating, with an average score of 7.4/10, based on reviews from 99 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." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
The film gained a standing ovation at the Toronto International Film Festival, 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" 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". 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. It was selected to play at Sundance in 2016.

Accolades

Land of Mine has also won numerous awards, including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Danish Film at the Bodil Awards.
YearAwardCategoryRecipientResultRef
2015Gijón International Film FestivalAudience AwardLand of Mine
2015Hamburg Film FestivalArt Cinema AwardLand of Mine
2015Tokyo International Film FestivalTokyo Grand PrixLand of Mine
2015Tokyo International Film FestivalBest Actor AwardRoland Møller & Louis Hofmann
2015Toronto International Film FestivalPlatform PrizeLand of Mine
2016AFI FestWorld Cinema Audience AwardLand of Mine
2016Bodil AwardsBest Danish FilmLand of Mine
2016Bodil AwardsBest ActorRoland Møller
2016Bodil AwardsBest Supporting ActorLouis Hofmann
2016European Film AwardsBest CinematographerCamilla Hjelm Knudsen
2016European Film AwardsBest Costume DesignStefanie Bieker
2016European Film AwardsBest Hair and Make-upBarbara Kreuzer
2016Gothenburg Film FestivalBest Nordic FilmLand of Mine
2016Hong Kong International Film FestivalSIGNIS AwardsLand of Mine
2016Miskolc International Film FestivalAdolph Zukor PrizeLand of Mine
2016Miskolc International Film FestivalInternational Federation of Film Critics AwardLand of Mine
2016Miskolc International Film FestivalInternational Ecumenical AwardLand of Mine
2016Mill Valley Film FestivalWorld Cinema Audience FavoriteLand of Mine
2016Nordic CouncilNordic Council Film PrizeLand of Mine
2016Rotterdam International Film FestivalWarsteiner Audience AwardLand of Mine
2016Rotterdam International Film FestivalMovieZone AwardLand of Mine
2016Sydney Film FestivalAudience AwardLand of Mine
2016Sydney Film FestivalSydney Film PrizeLand of Mine
2017Academy AwardsAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language FilmLand of Mine
2018Australian Film Critics AssociationBest International Film Land of Mine