Land of Mine

Following the end of World War II in Europe and the liberation of Denmark from German occupation in May 1945, the defeated Wehrmacht evacuates the country. A Danish sergeant, Carl Leopold Rasmussen, furiously beats up a German prisoner of war for carrying a Danish flag.[9] A group of young German prisoners are handed over to the Danish Army and sent to the west coast, where they are trained to remove the mines that the Germans had buried in the sand. Rasmussen forces the boys to perform the dangerous work with their bare hands. They are warned not to expect any sympathy from the Danes, who resent their former occupiers. Rasmussen shares this contempt and he is determined to treat the young prisoners without sympathy.

Rasmussen is rude to and contemptuous of them and the neighbouring household 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 begins to grow conflicted in his feelings and Sebastian Schumann, leader of the boys, attempts to remain optimistic; the boys discuss their plans for when they return home.

The POWs are not given food due to postwar shortages and some begin to suffer from malnourishment. The optimistic Wilhelm's arms are blown off and he dies in a field hospital. After stealing animal fodder from the nearby farm, the boys are poisoned by rat droppings and Rasmussen forces them to purge themselves with seawater. Afterwards, he begins to treat them more kindly, stealing food from the base for them and reporting that Wilhelm has survived, to maintain morale. He also allows the boys to use a device invented by Sebastian to improve productivity. While clearing the beach, one of the boys forgets to separate a mine's plunger from the detonator. After Rasmussen stops a group of Allied soldiers from urinating on one of the boys, Ebbe accuses him of being sympathetic towards the Germans. Werner is blown to bits after encountering landmines buried one above another and his twin brother, Ernst, who is in denial, is comforted by Rasmussen.

After a casual game of football, Rasmussen's dog is blown up in a supposedly safe zone of the beach. This causes Rasmussen to snap and begin abusing the boys again. He forces them to march close together across the cleared zones of the beach to confirm that they are safe. He relents after seeing Ernst save a little girl from the minefield and then commit suicide by walking onto uncleared sand. He reassures a grieving Sebastian that they will soon be able to return. While four of the boys continue to clear the beach of mines, a live mine is accidentally tossed onto a truckload of deactivated mines, setting off a massive chain reaction and killing the other seven. Only Sebastian, Ludwig, Helmut and Rodolf remain.

Although the boys had been promised that they would be sent home after defusing all of the mines, Ebbe informs Rasmussen that he has ordered the surviving four to be sent to another area, to join a team defusing landmines without the aid of a map. Rasmussen argues with Ebbe but he refuses to rescind the order. Rasmussen rescues them, drives them within 500 meters of the German border and orders them to run to their freedom.

Filming began in July 2014 and ended in August 2014. The film was shot at historically authentic locations, including in Oksbøllejren and areas in Varde. The use of the historical beaches led to the discovery of a real live mine during the production.[10]

• List of submissions to the 89th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Danish submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• Ten Seconds to Hell

• Land of Mine at IMDb
• Land of Mine at Rotten Tomatoes