LAND OF MINE / UNDER SANDET (2015) - Movie Review

Director: Martin Zandvliet
Starring: Roland Moller, Louis Hoffman, Joel Basman, Mikkel Boe Folsgaard, Laura Bro, Oksar Belton, Oskar Bokelmann, Emil Belton, Leon Seidel
Genre: War, History, Drama
Writer: Martin Zandvliet
Runtime:100 min
Rated: Rated R for violence, some grisly images, and language
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Synopsis:

As World War II comes to an end, a group of young German POWs is captured by the Danish army and forced to defuse and clear 2 million land mines from the Danish coast. With little to no training, the boys soon discover that the war is far from over. Inspired by true events, LAND OF MINE exposes the untold story about the young men who faced overwhelming odds in a post-war world.

Review:

World War II was an overwhelmingy vast and terrifying conflict that spawned countless works of art, either fictional or biographical, depicting its horrors. However, events that occurred after the war ended are no less fascinating. Martin Zandvliet's Oscar-nominated drama "Land of Mine" sets out to teach us another forgotten history lesson, and it's a devastating one.

The story takes place immedately after the war ended, in May 1945, and it deals with a lesser-known, and not particularly honorable episode in Denmark's history. The historical facts state that after WWII, more than 2,000 German prisoners of war were forced to remove over 1.5 million landmines from the west coast of Denmark. Of them, almost half died or were severely injured. The worst part is that many of them were young boys, children even.

This is commonly known as the worst case of war crimes ever conducted by the Danish state since the rules of the Geneva Convention explicitly forbid any Prisoner of War to be forced to perform dangerous work. To avoid this stipulation, the POW's status was illegally changed to DEF (Disarmed Enemy Forces), which also allowed the Allies to deny German prisoners the minimum of 1500 calories per day, as well as Red Cross access.

"Land of Mine" follows a group of teenage German prisoners who are tasked with removing the landmines that the Germans had buried in the sand of Denmark's west coast. Danish sergeant Rasmussen (Roland Møller) is left in charge of the boys, and while at first he's determined to treat them with disdain and contempt, he slowly begins to sympathize with their plight and stops seeing them as an enemy that should be put down.

Each and every one of the young actors is fantastic, with Louis Hofmann ("All the Light We Cannot See") and Joel Basman terrific standouts in this wonderful ensemble. However, Møller easily steals the show. He's downright terrifying and revolting as the hardass sergeant who only a few minutes into the movie we see abusing POWs, but he's also perfectly convincing when he begins to reconnect with his humanity. The change is never forced or unnatural, because Zandvliet is perfectly in control of the movie's tone and pacing. And it's such a lean movie, unpacking its themes in no more than 90 minutes, which is a lesson in efficiency many filmmakers could learn from.

The demining scenes are tense as hell. You can forget about "The Hurt Locker". This movie has some of the most intensely suspenseful scenes involving explosives I have ever seen, mostly because it's extremely disturbing to witness children getting blown up and mutilated by mankind's most devious killing device ever created. Zandvliet does not spare us the brutality and it's simply gut-wrenching.

War is hell, but what happens when it turns out that war never ends, because it has already left its evil print on our souls. "Land of Mine" answers that question with heartbraking clarity and ruthless honesty. It's a stark reminder of the dehumanizing effects of war, and how easy it is to become that which you hate when consumed with anger and a desire for revenge.

SCORE: 10/10