Writer/Director Martin Zandvliet, along with his cinematographer Camilla Hjelm bring a sweeping, widescreen beauty to this harrowing, deeply felt, excruciating story. Seriously? That's the sort of bad pun my readers have come to expect from my review titles, but its use here undermines a serious yet flawed piece of filmmaking. Originally called UNDER SANDET (translation: UNDER THE SAND), the story of post WW2 German soldiers held as prisoners of war until they can clear the mines they had planted along Denmark's west coast, the U.S. One of this year's Academy Award nominated Foreign Language films has repurposed its title for certain audiences and it has left me baffled. The Danish sergeant's way is to understand the past, and then to lock it away, never to be repeated, but the unknown factor is how many agree with him - then, or now.ĭAS HURT LOCKER - My Review of LAND OF MINE (3 Stars) And, if the method of clearing the mines was the forced labour of the enemy, in the form of half-starved, sick, scared and degraded teenagers, what guarantee is there even now that the beaches and the other minefields of Europe are safe? The film's ending, while appropriate to the story, leaves the questions open. The film begs the questions: what is the right punishment for an oppressor and how far down into the population should it have extended at what point is following orders a defence to war crimes how were these boys recruited or conscripted what would these boys have become, if Nazi Germany had prevailed what do they symbolise now.

Bridging the two worlds is the boys' commandant, a Danish sergeant who carries out his orders, but with degrees of compassion. It depicts the vengeful Allies as little better than the enemy, when they are subjecting the boys to inhuman labour, starvation, beatings and humiliation. Its point is simple: this is no way to treat children regardless of how Hitler's Germany used them, or what they did in the war. Knowing that the key elements in this film will consist of German teenager POWs being forced to clear landmines, the brutal consequences are inevitable and there can be no mystery about what awful scenes it must contain.

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