Synopsis
In the days following the surrender of Germany in May 1945, a group of young German prisoners of war is handed over to the Danish authorities and subsequently sent to the West Coast, where they are ordered to remove the more than two million mines that the Germans had placed in the sand along the coast. With their bare hands, crawling around in the sand, the boys are forced to perform the dangerous work under the leadership of a Danish sergeant.
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Cast
- Roland MøllerSgt. Carl Rasmussen
- Louis HofmannSebastian Schumann
- Mikkel Boe FølsgaardLt. Ebbe Jensen
- Joel BasmanHelmut Morbach
- Laura BroKarin
- Oskar BökelmannLudwig Haffke
- Emil BeltonErnst Lessner
- Oskar BeltonWerner Lessner
- Leon SeidelWilhelm Hahn
- Karl Alexander SeidelManfred
Recommendations
- 83
Hitfix
The characters are so well drawn (and the relatively young cast steps up to the plate) that combined with the material’s natural tension you’ll find yourself riveted to the proceedings. - 83
Christian Science Monitor
It’s clear from the way writer-director Martin Zandvliet sets up the story that the fiery Rasmussen, who denies the boys adequate rations and pens them indoors at night, will eventually soften. It’s to the film’s credit that he does so in ways that are eminently believable. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
The film works as a moving anti-war essay and as a gripping thriller. - 80
Variety
Zandvliet’s script and direction avoid milking an innately loaded situation for excess melodrama or pathos, sticking to a discreet economy of approach that accumulates considerable power. - 80
Los Angeles Times
Crisply and efficiently put together by writer-director Zandvliet, Land of Mine has the inherent edge-of-your-seat concern about what kind of damage the bombs will inflict on which of these boys, but it is the psychological qualities of the situation that hold the greatest interest. - 80
The New Yorker
Again and again, its stark and suspenseful compositions strike the eye — figures in dark clothing, prone on a pale beach, with lines of wire, black warning flags, and the chill gray waves beyond. - 80
Wall Street Journal
An act of expiation, Land of Mine is honorable, harrowing and stirring. - 75
The A.V. Club
The cheesiest thing about it is the punny English-language title with which it’s been saddled. Otherwise, Land Of Mine is tough and admirably grim, turning a harrowing history lesson into a study in how the battles of wartime don’t always cease with the ceasefire.
