This Land of Mine 2015

     The setting of this film is Denmark of 1945 after the defeat of Germany.  The title in Danish is Under Sandet.  Sergeant Carl Rasmussen is assigned by Lieutenant Ebbe Jensen to remove 2.2 million land mines.  The location of the mines is the Danish West Coast.  The beaches will remain unsafe until all the mines are removed.  A group of teenage German prisoners of war are sent to do the clearing.  Carl tells the boys that they will be released to return to Germany after their job is finished.  In the beginning, Carl feels very hostile towards the boys and other Danes feel the same.  Then he starts to realize they are just boys and he feels better about working with them plus treating them better. 

      In the planning stages of where to set up these mines, Hitler must have thought that an Allied invasion would come to this beach?  This area is the closest land point to Berlin.  60,000 mines were placed along this beach.  There is a map listing the locations and kinds of mines.  Every inch of the beach still needed to be tested because there may have been mistakes on the map.  The Germans occupied Denmark for five years.  This must have left a very bad impression on the Danish people!!   There are 14 boys that were drafted near the end of the war and they are in the 15 to 17 year-old range.  I thought the boys should’ve been sent home and the defeated German soldiers over the age of 21 sent to remove the mines.  Possibly, the Danes were confident only one sergeant could handle the boys and more men would be required to supervise adults?  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

100 min, Drama directed by Martin Zandvliet with Roland Moller, Louis Hofmann, Joel Basman, Mikkel Boe Folsgaard, Laura Bro, Zoe Zandvliet, Mads Riisom, Oskar Bokelmann, Emil and Oskar Belton, Leon Seidel, Karl Alexander Seidel, Tim Bulow.

Note:  Imdb 7.8 out of 10, 90% critic 88% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3*, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 106 reviews, Metacritic 75 out of 100 with 26 critics 7.8 out of 10 with 32 reviews, EmpireOnline 3* out of 5*, The Guardian 3* out of 5* review by Peter Bradshaw.

Special Note:  Filmed in Vejers and Blavand in the Danish North Sea Nature Park, Municipality of Varde and Oksbollejre, Jylland, Denmark.  Filming took place at historically authentic locations.  The use of German children for post WW2 mine sweeping really happened in 1945.  Historians declared this the worst case of war crimes ever conducted by the Danish state.  According to the Geneva Convention it is explicitly forbidden that any Prisoner of War be forced to perform dangerous and/or unhealthy labor.  A Danish sergeant leads the mine clearing operation but historically British forces controlled the missions and German Officers commanded each team.  It is believed that more than 2,000 German soldiers were forced to remove mines and nearly half lost their lives or limbs.  In the film, the young actors didn’t know when or if they will be killed off.  They were sent home each time they were killed in a scene.  The actors felt lonely and isolated similar to the real boys  as filming continued.  Selected as Denmark’s submission for the Foreign Language Film Award at the 89^th Academy Awards.