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Land of Mine Movie Review

Land of Mine is a 2015 Danish historical film directed by Martin Zandvliet. It’s a pretty good, tragic movie.

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“If they are old enough to go to war,

they are old enough to clean up“

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A group of German prisoners of war are forced to dig up millions of Nazi land mines with their bare hands along the coast of the North Sea in Denmark. World War II movies are overly abundant these days, and yes, this is another such movie. However, this one focuses on a much lesser-known event and that certainly gives it some edge and originality.

This treatment of young German boys just after the war is reportedly deemed the worst war crime in Danish history. It is difficult to argue with that logic witnessing the many horrendous moments here. Yes, this is a very gruesome movie that doesn’t shy away from the horrors of war, but it portrays the horrors of land mines in a terrifyingly detailed manner.

The movie’s at its best in those suspenseful moments when you just await the inevitable, which is the death of another one of the boys. Seeing their suffering was tragic, and thus the film is heartbreaking and very intense.

The worst moments here are those revolving around the sergeant character. Undoubtedly, Roland Moller gave a terrific performance in what is basically the film’s main role. He’s great. But, this character is so cliched with his shift to the compassionate side feeling overly movie-like and unrealistic.

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Maybe it was necessary for such a harsh and dark film to feature somewhat of a happy ending, but still I did not like it. The entire film is very mature and plausible, but this element is certainly not. Still, Land of Mine deserved its Oscar nomination as it’s tightly edited and paced, always engaging, very well shot and consistently thrilling. That tone full of intensity is clearly its highlight and the one thing that made it quite memorable when all is said and done. The acting performances are also uniformly strong from all of its young actors.

Though very cliched and unrealistic in its sergeant character, Land of Mine is otherwise unflinchingly raw and gruesome in its portrayal of war crimes as it deals with a lesser-known, but very important, tragic and horrific event in Danish history. The very intense tone throughout is the film’s highlight.

My Rating – 4

You can get Land of Mine on Amazon.