Land of Mine

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Martin Zandvliet directs. Camilla Hjelm Knudsen behind the camera. Sune Martin scores. Per Sandholt cuts. Produced in Germany, Denmark. Dialogue in Danish, English, German.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 11 years ago.
• 2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Danish, English, German.
• 3International production across 2 countries: Germany, Denmark.
• 4Directed by Martin Zandvliet, shot by Camilla Hjelm Knudsen. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Sune Martin. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Per Sandholt shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Roland Møller and Louis Hofmann and Mikkel Boe Følsgaard carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "They survived the second World War, now they must survive the cleanup".
• 9IMDB entry: tt3841424 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Classified under 9 themes, including "beach", "prisoner of war", "post world war ii", "land mine".

The technical file

Cinematography

Camilla Hjelm Knudsen

Original score

Sune Martin

Editing

Per Sandholt

Production design

Gitte Malling

Costume design

Stefanie Bieker

Makeup / hair

Désirée Delic

VFX supervisor

Jean-Michel Boublil

Sound

Lars Ginzel

Stunt coordinator

Anders Nylander Thomsen

Runtime

100 min · 1h 40m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$5,070,773

Original language

DA

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Land of Mine (2015) ↗

Also by

Martin Zandvliet

• 
  A Funny Man

  2011 · ★ 7.3
• 
  Tove’s Room

  2023 · ★ 6.7
• 
  The Outsider

  2018 · ★ 6.1
• 
  Applause

  2009 · ★ 5.9
• 
  The Marco Effect

  2021 · ★ 5.7
• 
  Harvest

  2026

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Land of Mine Official Trailer 1 (2016) - Roland Moller Movie

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Reno2016-09-01
  ★ 8/10

  Teen POWs in the post WWII Denmark. A Danish war-drama that was inspired by the historical account, but all the characters were fictional. Remember this title for another six month, because I am confident this film will make a journey to the west coast of the USA to compete at the 89th Academy Awards in the coming February. I have seen many foreign films, but I'm not this much positive for any others. If this film fails to make, then that would be a great disappointment despite having no idea of what are the other four films. So this is just for now, my stance may change later. Anyway, the film was heartbreakingly amazing. The WWII stories I had seen those told from the perspectives of the Australian, Japanese, Korean, Russian to African and European to the American western sea, Hawaii. And this is a Danish story, sets in just after the end of the war where prisoners of the war were used to clean up the mess. In the opening the teen German POWs were trained to defuse the land mine explosives and then later the unit was handed over to the Danish sergeant Carl Rasmussen where they are all going to work in one of the west coast landmines that was used to defend the Scandinavia by the Nazi. That is the story told how it all ends in the remaining parts. This was like another 'Kajaki', but not actually a war film. Using of the prisoners as the labourers is a violation, according to the Geneva rule. That's the point of the film, focused to reveal the inhume act. But it was not anything like 'The Railway Man' 'Unbroken' or the 'The Bridge on the River Kwai'. Watching a film about the brave soldiers inspires us and bring patriotism, but in this those teen kid screaming whenever something goes wrong really brings heartache. So not everybody feels comfortable with it, especially the family audience. But there were lots of edgy moments and you would never know what events follows. "If they are old enough to go to war, they are old enough to clean up." It was shot is the real location, and I think that part contributed to depicting the actual atmosphere where most of the POWs lost their arms and legs and some exploded into many pieces in the air. It was a simple narration, but the visuals talked itself more than anything else. All the actors were outstanding, especially those 4-5 German teens and of course the Danish sergeant Carl. I think the Carl's influence had more impact, after seeing the opening scene where he went outrage and beat up those German soldiers returning home. There are a couple of small twists, but there are some scenes which are not easy to get over. Even though we know those were just fake, but that does not work once you totally into the story deeply. This is a different kind of emotional film, something you rarely experience. The director who is also the writer must be appreciated for handling it perfectly. Especially keeping the screenplay uncomplicated and between the two nations, where in the real event involves the British officials. I have never seen his other films, but this one will define him forth and the people are going to recognise him. So I hope he'll keep up doing such level films in the future. I have never seen such film, I mean seen some where the kids were tortured, but this was very unique and totally a different perspective for that takes place in the backdrop of the WWII. Especially the Germans perspective is the very rare kind. So I'm kind of thinking if Germany picks 'Look Who's Back' for the Oscars, the contest between these two would bring two different moods. At this point I don't remember any Danish film I have seen so far in my life other than this one which I feel is the best Danish film ever. I mean, come on, who would do such film where your own nation, if not the whole nation, the one who represent was shown in the negative shade over the Nazi Germans. This is definitely one of the best films of the year. Highly recommended. 8/10

  Read full review ↓
• tmdb280390232022-09-05
  ★ 6/10

  There are myriad movies about World War II, but never have I encountered one able to generate such sympathy for German soldiers and contempt for non-Teutonic Europeans as Under Sandet does. The film tells the story of German POWs who were ordered to clear landmines in Denmark after the war. These are not your stereotypically evil Nazi officers, but pubescent foot soldiers — if they seem like scared little children, it’s because they pretty much are. The locals, military and civilian alike, treat the Germans like a bunch of red-headed stepsons — completely disposable, forced to 'practice' with real, active mines, and sent to a beach under whose sands there are 45,000 buried explosive devices. "Assuming you deactivate six mines an hour and don't blow yourselves to bits, you'll be home in three months," tells them Sergeant Rasmussen (Roland Møller), whom we first meet when he’s bashing a surrendering German soldier’s skull in for carrying a Danish flag in his hand. Under Sandet’s premise explores an overlooked aspect of World War II, but the film's power lies not in what it reveals, but in what it doesn't. At a certain point, one of the boys is unlucky enough to find a mine right on top of another mine; the poor wretch doesn’t live long enough to realize this fact, but his ignorance of the situation does not in the least lessen its impact. Similarly, writer/director Martin Zandvliet has crafted a figuratively equally explosive palimpsest. Depending on how steeped the viewer is in the historical context, the Danes' attitude is petty at best and hypocritical at worst. In addition to irony so subtle it’s almost subliminal, Under Sandet is a rather literal illustration of Hitchcock’s notions on suspense. This suspense remains effective even if we can predict some of the characters’ fates (for instances, one would have to be exceedingly naïve to see a pair of brothers — and twins, no less — in a story like this and expect them both to survive).

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Nordisk Film Denmark

  DK

• 

  Amusement Park Films

  DE

• MA

  Majgaard

• 

  K5 International

  DE

• K5

  K5 Film

  DE

• 

  ZDF

  DE

• GO

  Goethe Filmproduktion

• 

  Erfttal Film

  DE

Key crew

• Production DesignGitte Malling
• Special Effects Makeup ArtistDésirée Delic
• Set DecorationKay Anthony
• Art DirectionSeth Turner
• Associate ProducerKlaus Dohle
• Costume DesignStefanie Bieker
• Special Effects Makeup ArtistChristoph Kunzmann
• Hair DesignerBarbara Kreuzer
• Makeup ArtistPaulin Pospischil
• Makeup ArtistMike Reinecke
• CastingSimone Bär
• Makeup DesignerBarbara Kreuzer
• ElectricianNiclas Fusager
• Production ManagerArno Neubauer
• Construction ForemanHarry Bollhöfener
• Drone OperatorTao Ahler
• Production AccountantSteffi Hiller
• Costume DesignClaudia Maria Braun
• Makeup ArtistSonia Salazar-Zivoder
• Stunt CoordinatorAnders Nylander Thomsen
• GafferNoah Lynnerup
• Dialect CoachSimone Dietrich
• Boom OperatorIvo Seewald
• Visual Effects CoordinatorMarlies Schacherl

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• beach
• prisoner of war
• post world war ii
• land mine
• 1940s
• minefield
• sudden death
• boy soldier
• meager rations

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical (limited)2016-01-22R· Sundance Film Festival
• Theatrical (limited)2017-01-10· Palm Springs International Film Festival

Also known as

International titles

• Unter dem Sand - Das Versprechen der FreiheitDE
• Tierra de MinasMX
• Land Of MineNL
• 地雷区CN
• 十個拆彈的少年HK