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Denmark, Germany · 2015
Rated R · 1h 40m
Director Martin Zandvliet
Starring Roland Møller, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Laura Bro, Louis Hofmann
Genre Drama, History, Thriller, War
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In the days following the surrender of Germany in May 1945, a group of young German prisoners of war are sent out to Denmark's West Coast, where they are ordered to remove the more than two million mines that the Germans had placed on the beach. Under the strict supervision of Sergeant Rasmussen, the young prisoners must accomplish this extremely grueling, dangerous task.
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.
Village Voice by Alan Scherstuhl
The film is sometimes too sentimental, too predictable in its drift, but electric in individual moments.
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
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.
Screen International by David D'Arcy
Despite the sense of fatalism and some clumsy turns in Zandvliet’s script, Land Of Mine achieves moments of chilling suspense.
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.
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.
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
An act of expiation, Land of Mine is honorable, harrowing and stirring.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
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.
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
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.
The Hollywood Reporter by Stephen Farber
The film works as a moving anti-war essay and as a gripping thriller.
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