Under sandet (2015)

aka Land of Mine

Slo naslov: -

Angleški naslov: Land of Mine

Država: Danska, Nemčija

Jezik: Danščina, Nemščina

Leto: 2015

Dolžina: 100' ,  Imdb

Žanri: Drama, Vojni, Zgodovinski 

Slo recenzija: -

Režija: Martin Zandvliet

Scenarij: Martin Zandvliet

Igrajo: Roland Moller, Louis Hofmann, Joel Basman, Mikkel Boe Folsgaard, Laura Bro, Zoe Zandvliet, Mads Riisom, Oskar Bokelmann, Emil Belton, Oskar Belton, Leon Seidel, Karl Alexander Seidel, Maximilian Beck, August Carter

[ENG]

Based on extraordinary true events, writer/director Martin Zandvliet’s stunning, multi award­winning new film is a nail­bitingly tense thriller about a group of young German prisoners of war in Denmark in the immediate aftermath of World War II, which examines both the repercussions of retribution and the value of forgiveness.

In the days following the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945, a group of German soldiers – most barely out of their teens – are put to work by their Allied captors. With minimal training, they are sent to locate and disarm their own hidden weapons that still litter the beaches along Denmark’s west coast, under the supervision of a righteous and embittered Danish sergeant, Rasmussen (Roland Møller, in a superb performance). Scornful of the Germans for their five­year occupation of his country, and intent on punishing what’s left of their army, he ruthlessly marches his squad out on the dunes each day to prod for mines. Yet this risky task soon challenges even Rasmussen, who grows

more and more conflicted in his feelings toward his young charges.

War stories abound in cinema, but few have so eloquently focused on the resultant hangovers of conflict and occupation. Featuring arresting performances from the ensemble cast, and breathtaking cinematography that balances the apparent calm of the coast’s pristine beaches with the nerve­wracking knowledge of what lies beneath, Zandvliet’s powerful and morally complex tale is riveting viewing, with a potency that echoes Peter Weir’s Gallipoli and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker but an impact truly of its own.

[Palace Films]

********************

A little-remembered chapter from WWII’s immediate aftermath in Denmark is dramatized in “Land of Mine.” Martin Zandvliet’s third directorial feature is a tightly focused narrative that can hardly help but build considerable tension and poignancy, given that it centers on Axis boy soldiers forced to remove still-live land mines that their side left behind at war’s end. Chosen as the kickoff feature for the Toronto Film Festival’s new juried Platform section — which Piers Handling’s stage intro defined as dedicated to “bold, innovative, challenging films from mid-career and emerging filmmakers” — it should parlay good reviews into decent sales among discerning offshore distribs and outlets. 

[Dennis Harvey, Variety]

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