Few films have dealt with the immediate aftermath of conflict and occupation in the wake of the Second World War.
Land of Mine, the new, powerful film from Danish writer-director Martin Zandvliet, is nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
The tale exposes the previously hidden story of Denmark’s darkest hour, when after years of war and terror, the lines between right and wrong are often eradicated.
After the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945, German POWs held in Denmark were put to work by the Allied Forces. With minimal or no training in defusing explosives, they were sent to remove millions of their own landmines from the Danish west coast.
During this process, more than half of them were killed or severely wounded. Zandvliet sheds light on this historical tragedy as the entry point to a story that involves hate, revenge and reconciliation.
The young German POWs Sebastian, Helmut, Ludwig, twins Ernst and Werner, and Wilhelm suffer from confusion, fear and defeat.
Scornful of the Germans for their five-year occupation of his country, and with the intent on punishing what is left of the Nazi regime, the protagonist is a bullish man, Sergeant Rasmussen (Roland Møller), who marches his squad out on the dunes each day to prod for mines.
This endless task quickly leads to bloody carnage, and even Rasmussen grows conflicted in his feelings toward his young prisoners.
Though nominally Land of Mine is about the aftermath of war, Zandvliet finds compelling material for a tale of comradeship, survival, and even unexpected friendships between opponents.
The movie deals with the prevalence of the kind of inherent evil that could exist in all of us as human beings.
In the process, it raises a more general moral and political question of whether or not it is ever possible to show sympathy for those who represented the Nazi terror?