Land of Mine

Land of Mine 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. It was selected and nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 89th Academy Awards. The film is inspired by real events when over 1.3m German mines were cleared from Denmark's shores and fields from May to September 1945 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 German officers, removed mines. 169 of them lost their lives during the five months of mine clearing, 165 were severely wounded and 167 lightly wounded. 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. Plot Following the end of World War II in Europe and the liberation of Denmark from German occupation in May 1945, the Wehrmacht and SS occupiers became prisoners of war. Returning to the Danish Army after service in the British Parachute Regiment, sergeant Carl Leopold Rasmussen furiously beats up a German prisoner for carrying a Danish flag. A group of young German prisoners are handed over to Rasmussen's commanding officer Captain Ebbe Jensen and sent to the west coast, where they are trained to use their bare hands to remove the mines that the Germans had buried in the sand. They are warned not to expect any sympathy from the Danes, who resent their former occupiers. Rasmussen shares this contempt and is determined to treat the young prisoners without sympathy. Rasmussen is rude to and contemptuous of them and the neighbouring farm treats them with hostility. After marching his squad onto the dunes, he promises that they will return home in three months, if they can each defuse six mines per hour for a total of 45,000 mines. Rasmussen's hostility begins to recede slightly and the boys' leader Sebastian Schumann attempts to remain optimistic as they discuss their plans for when they return home. The POWs are not given food due to post-war shortages and begin to suffer from malnourishment, with Ernst befriending a young local girl to steal some bread from her. The optimistic Wilhelm's arms are blown off and he dies in a field hospital.