Land of Mine (2015)

Land of Mine (2015)

A tense, personal post-WWII drama about learning to break the cycle of war

7.9

Movie

Denmark, Germany
Danish, English, German
Drama, History, War
2015
MARTIN ZANDVLIET
Anthony Straeger, August Carter, Emil Belton
100 min

What it's about

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.

The take

Taking place entirely on beachside farmlands in Denmark, Land of Mine takes a particularly intimate—and visually distinct—approach to war. The fighting may be over, but the film remains a tense and emotionally distressing, with all the pain and violence being carried over onto these German boys being forced to clear the beaches of live explosives with their bare hands. The relationship between these young men and their vengeful Danish commanding officer may progress a little quickly for some, but their volatile bond only emphasizes that rage isn't meant to be felt forever, and that war is a destructive cycle that eventually needs to come to an end.

Comments

Add a comment

Your name

Your comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

A star-studded and riveting legal drama with a blockbuster feel.

8.1

The Guilty (2018)

A minimalist, razor-sharp thriller that will have you gasping for air.

9.0

Forgotten Love (2023)

The stunning third take of the classic Polish pre-war melodrama

7.7

The Boxer (1997)

Star-crossed lovers stand their ground in this disappointing Northern Irish drama

6.8

System Crasher (2019)

A tale of trauma and one of the most talked about movies on Netflix in 2020.

9.0

Down the Rabbit Hole (2024)

A painfully uneventful coming-of-age story about a boy and his drug-lord father

3.5

La Chimera (2023)

A dreamy, bewitching film that ponders on ideas of lostness and longing

8.0

La Belle Noiseuse (1991)

A sensual, spellbinding masterpiece depicting the creative process and its muse

8.1

Italian for Beginners (2000)

An understated, lighthearted romantic comedy made much more naturalistic through the Dogme ethos

7.0

Leave the World Behind (2023)

Shyamalan meets Black Mirror in this hugely entertaining, visually inventive apocalyptic thriller with a killer ending

8.2

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.