I found this by complete accident on youtube, and was enthralled by the first scene, enough to continue and watch the entire 2 hours.
Apparently, when WW2 ended, a small-ish number of German Prisoners Of War were kept by Denmark for the sole job of removing landmines, mostly as a punishment for their previous occupation of their land. The job involved laying on your belly and tapping the ground with a spike, to find a mine, and then manually disarming it. Not an easy job, and in fact about half of those put to it, either died or suffered grevious wounds.
On top of all that, most of these POWs were teenagers, mostly last- minute conscripts from the Hitler Youth, forced into the war as a last ditch effort to try to win against the allies.
Land of Mine is a 2015 film (of which i completely ignored the existence until just now) entirely in German, although subtitles are available, detailing the fate of one group of said children, and of their Danish instructor/warden, as they learn the dangerous job of hand-disarming live explosives, all the while trying to figure out why they are there.
Now, Land of Mine is a masterfully well made film; the acting is excellent, the production is likewise top notch, and the soundtrack particularly moving; but ..
It's long. It's dark. It's more than a bit depressing.
This is not an easy film to watch. It will force you to ponder the horrors of war, without ever giving you a rest, a hero to admire, a victory to share. Here, war is about loss, not victory.
I am not sure i can recommend this film. But if you have a friend or two who think war is cool because you shoot bad guys, then show them this film, it will change their mind.
my vote will be only 7/10. it's good, but it's hard.
Apparently, when WW2 ended, a small-ish number of German Prisoners Of War were kept by Denmark for the sole job of removing landmines, mostly as a punishment for their previous occupation of their land. The job involved laying on your belly and tapping the ground with a spike, to find a mine, and then manually disarming it. Not an easy job, and in fact about half of those put to it, either died or suffered grevious wounds.
On top of all that, most of these POWs were teenagers, mostly last- minute conscripts from the Hitler Youth, forced into the war as a last ditch effort to try to win against the allies.
Land of Mine is a 2015 film (of which i completely ignored the existence until just now) entirely in German, although subtitles are available, detailing the fate of one group of said children, and of their Danish instructor/warden, as they learn the dangerous job of hand-disarming live explosives, all the while trying to figure out why they are there.
Now, Land of Mine is a masterfully well made film; the acting is excellent, the production is likewise top notch, and the soundtrack particularly moving; but ..
It's long. It's dark. It's more than a bit depressing.
This is not an easy film to watch. It will force you to ponder the horrors of war, without ever giving you a rest, a hero to admire, a victory to share. Here, war is about loss, not victory.
I am not sure i can recommend this film. But if you have a friend or two who think war is cool because you shoot bad guys, then show them this film, it will change their mind.
my vote will be only 7/10. it's good, but it's hard.