Day
89 Under
sandet (Land of Mine) [2015]
Screenplay Martin Zandvliet
Director Martin Zandvliet
Cinematography Camilla Hjelm Knudsen
Music Sune Martin
Leads Roland
Møller, Mikkel Følsgaard, Emil Benton, Oscar Belton, Louis Hoffmann, Joel
Basman, Oskar Bökelmann
Production Nordisk Film, Amusement Park Films
IMDb 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes 91%
I
always struggle to put on films that you need subtitles for. It’s the extra
effort of having to read the bottom of the screen to know what the fuck is
going on, whilst still trying to appreciate the visuals. However, if you are in
the mood, and you concentrate, foreign film can end up being pretty damn good.
You learn to appreciate the beauty and nuances of another language, and the
range that foreign actors have as they often speak multiple languages. Under
sandet (the original Danish title) is a film that covers the aftermath of
World War II in Denmark. Without getting into the politics too much – it covers
the Danish/British use of German POWs to clear thousands of mines from the
beaches of Denmark. A war crime under the Geneva convention, but largely
overlooked due to how close to the end of the war it was, and also due to the
fact they were German mines, so the thought process was ‘you put them there,
you get rid of them’. Anyway, I guess this film covers the worst elements of
this decision, the fact that among those POWs were teenage boys, drafted in
late on in the war, many of whom had no experience in handling mines, and many
of whom had possibly not even fired a shot. It’s a tense, sad film from start
to finish. The boys are all brilliant, especially the Benton twins, and it was
nice to see Louis Hoffmann in something else having watched Dark (which
I recommend as a Netflix binge). Roland Møller was fantastic as the Sergeant in
charge of the boys, despite the dodgy hat he seems to wear at all press events,
his acting is first class. The storyline is strong, and the subject of the film
means that you are constantly on the edge of your seat – whenever they are on
the beach a mine could go off at any moment, it is tough to watch, waiting for
the inevitable, and yet it always happens just when you don’t expect it. The
reason it hasn’t quite received perfect marks from me is that I would have
liked to know what the Sergeant’s back story is, we are left to make up our own
mind as to why he has been assigned to this task, and why he is outranked by a
much younger man. It is also questionable whether he would have been left in
charge of the boys alone – in reality they could have overpowered him easily
due to their number. The setting is a bleak, yet stunning one, emphasised well
by Knudsen. It’s a fresh perspective on a saturated genre that I very much enjoyed.
Acting 4 / 4
Writing 3.5 / 4
Cinematography 4 / 4
Music 2.5 / 4
HWF rating 3.5 / 4