Land of Mine

Land of Mine
Theatrical release poster
Under sandet
Directed byMartin Zandvliet
Screenplay byMartin Zandvliet
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyCamilla Hjelm Knudsen
Edited by
  • Per Sandholt
  • Molly Malene Stensgaard
Music bySune Martin
Distributed byNordisk Film
Release dates
  • 10 September 2015 (2015-09-10) (TIFF)
  • 3 December 2015 (2015-12-03) (Denmark)
Running time
90 minutes
Countries
  • Denmark
  • Germany
Languages
  • German
  • Danish
  • English
BudgetDKK 35.5 million[1]
Box officeUS$3.2 million[2]

Land of Mine (Danish: Under sandet, lit. 'Under the Sand') is a 2015 historical war drama film directed by Martin Zandvliet. It was shown in the Platform section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.[3] It was selected and nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 89th Academy Awards.[4][5][6]

The film is inspired by real events when over 1.3 million German landmines were cleared from Denmark's shores and fields from May to September 1945[7] and tells a story of German prisoners of war ordered to clear land mines after World War II. It is estimated that more than 2,000 soldiers including a number of teenagers, under the command of Danish officers, removed mines. 149 of them lost their lives during the five months of mine clearing, 165 were severely wounded and 167 lightly wounded.[8] The removal was part of a controversial agreement between the German Commander General Georg Lindemann, the Danish Government and the British Armed Forces, under which German soldiers with experience in defusing mines would be in charge of clearing the mine fields.[9][10] In retrospect, this activity has been condemned as a war crime since it violated the Geneva Convention of 1929, which states in Article 32 that no prisoner of war must be forced to participate in dangerous or unhealthy labour.[11]

  1. ^ "Nordisk Film & TV Fond Jumps On Zandvliet's Land of Mine". Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  2. ^ "Land of Mine (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  3. ^ "Toronto International Film Festival Announces Inaugural Platform Lineup". IndieWire. 13 August 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  4. ^ "War film submitted as Denmark's Oscar entry". CPH Post. 19 September 2016. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  5. ^ Roxborough, Scott (19 September 2016). "Oscars: Denmark Selects 'Land of Mine' for Foreign-Language Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  6. ^ Samuelson, Kate (24 January 2017). "Here Are the 2017 Oscar Nominations". Time. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  7. ^ Evans, Roly (2018). "Lessons from the Past: The Rapid Clearance of Denmark's Minefields in 1945".
  8. ^ John V. Jensen: Landminer ved Vestkysten, 1943–2012.In: danmarkshistorien.dk. 4. Mai 2020
  9. ^ "UNDER SANDET – NY FILM AF MARTIN ZANDVLIET" (in Danish). Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  10. ^ Journalist, Eva Lange Jørgensen (3 December 2015). "Historiker roser 'Under Sandet' selv om der skrues "liiige lovligt meget på drama-knappen"". Politiken. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  11. ^ Diamond, Anna. "A Dark Time in Denmark's History". The Atlantic.com. Retrieved 11 May 2024.