Movie · 2015 · War, Drama, History · 1h 40m · R · DA
Curator score: 8.3/10 (83K ratings)
They survived the second World War, now they must survive the cleanup
Overview
In the days following the surrender of Germany in May 1945, a group of young German prisoners of war is handed over to the Danish authorities and subsequently sent to the West Coast, where they are ordered to remove the more than two million mines that the Germans had placed in the sand along the coast. With their bare hands, crawling around in the sand, the boys are forced to perform the dangerous work under the leadership of a Danish sergeant.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.3/10
IMDb: 7.8/10
Letterboxd: 4.03/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Metacritic: 75
TMDB: 7.8/10
Director
Martin Zandvliet
Production
Nordisk Film Denmark, Amusement Park Films, Majgaard, K5 International, K5 Film, ZDF
Cast
Roland Møller, Louis Hofmann, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Joel Basman, Laura Bro, Oskar Bökelmann, Emil Belton, Oskar Belton, Leon Seidel, Karl Alexander Seidel, Maximilian Beck, August Carter, Tim Bülow, Alexander Rasch, Julius Kochinke, Aaron Koszuta, Levin Henning, Mads Riisom, Mette Lysdahl, Johnny Melville
Curator Review
Verdict
A harrowing, tightly controlled postwar drama that turns a little-known historical atrocity into an intimate moral reckoning. It’s brutal, tense, and emotionally devastating, with strong performances and a clear sense of outrage at the cruelty of forcing teenage POWs to clear mines by hand.
Best for
viewers who like grim, fact-based war dramas
fans of tense survival stories and moral dilemmas
audiences interested in lesser-known WWII history
people who appreciate restrained, character-driven filmmaking
Skip if
you want conventional battlefield action
you’re sensitive to injury, death, or sustained wartime cruelty
you prefer uplifting or cathartic war films
you dislike bleak, emotionally punishing dramas
Overview
Land of Mine is one of those war films that feels less like a spectacle than a wound. By focusing on the aftermath of the war rather than the fighting itself, it exposes a cruel chapter of history with unnerving clarity: teenage German POWs forced to clear mines from Danish beaches under constant threat of death. The premise alone creates immediate dread, and the film sustains it with precision.
Worth noting
What makes it work is the balance between procedural tension and human fragility. The boys are not treated as symbols; they’re frightened, stubborn, hungry, and still very young. The Danish sergeant is written with enough complexity to avoid easy villainy, which only makes the film’s moral ugliness more disturbing. The coastal setting is starkly beautiful, but the beauty never softens the brutality.
Bottom line
This is a severe, emotionally punishing film, but not a manipulative one. It earns its impact through discipline, performance, and a clear-eyed view of how war keeps destroying people after the guns go silent. If you want a war drama that lingers because of what it withholds as much as what it shows, this is a strong recommendation.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Himawan07 (5★) · 265 likes
A well-done film about a little-known chapter of history.
cinemasauron (4★) · 204 likes
Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Academy Awards, Land of Mine (Under sandet) is a disturbing, disquieting & devastating cinema that's inspired from the immoral & inhuman acts that the Danish authorities perpetrated against German POWs, majority of whom were teenagers, following the end of the Second World War in Europe.
Set in post-World War II Denmark, the story follows a Danish Sergeant who is assigned the duty to defuse & remove over 2 million mines that were buried by… more
🤎jess🤎 (5★) · 203 likes
You must be strong. Can you do that?Yes. I can be strong.You are strong.I am strong.Say it again.I am strong.Yes. I'll make it home.I'll make it home.It's almost over. Thanks.
utterly heartwrenching. i wanted to hug each and every single one of those boys.
Anya Bo 🌹 (4★) · 139 likes
the first boy lost his arms and i cried then when he died i cried a little more and when they started all dying like flies i couldn't stop crying, but when the DOG DIED MAN I died too
i think the movie lacked of human body parts flying out but overall it was great!!
Harvey 🎉 🎆 🎉 (5★) · 135 likes
Movies based on real events ranked
This film is about a few German prisoner of war soldiers who after Germanys surrender are forced to remove over 2 million mines that were placed by their fellow soldiers. If this film does not give me heart palpitations then it has failed me.
Safe to say it very much succeeded in that sense. I haven’t seen the hurt locker but from what I’ve heard I’d imagine that if you like that film you… more
2006 · Action, Drama, War · 2h 21m · R · Curator 8.5/10 (245K ratings)
A sympathetic enemy-perspective war drama that complicates notions of duty and humanity.
Topics
war drama, historical drama, WWII aftermath, survival thriller, moral ambiguity, bleak tone, period piece, Scandinavian cinema, prisoners of war, trauma