![]() When he started researching about this story, immediately we were hooked. It was about finding a human path to deal with this subject matter. All countries share their own patriotism, and Martin was really interested in discovering the holes in that patriotism. Mikael Christian Rieks (MCR): Denmark thinks that we were the good Samaritans during the war. This is an untold story that only a few people knew about. It was four years of writing and researching about all this stuff. It changed from being about the Geneva Convention to being this story. Then, when I started researching I found out that they were boys-many boys. I knew I wanted to make a movie about us breaking the Geneva Convention by putting POWs into danger and disarming mines. Every country has certain stories that they never tell. Martin Zandvliet (MZ): I wanted to make a movie about one of the dark chapters of our country. Where did your interest in this come from? Both the director and producer Mikael Christian Rieks chatted with MovieMaker about their utterly successful period piece.Ĭarlos Aguilar, MovieMaker Magazine (MM): Land of Mine centers around one of those mostly unknown footnotes in world history, one I’m sure most people outside of Denmark have never heard of. It’s in the hands of moviemakers like Zandvliet to use drama as a vehicle to spread the idea of self-examination without judgment. Ideally, compassion would reign supreme, but the savage quest for retribution has proven to be one of man’s strongest drives. Land of Mine delivers in tension, great performances by mostly non-actors, and an intelligent observation on patriotism and the hate that emanates from symbols and ideas. It was not only a way for the Scandinavian nation to not risk the lives of its own citizens, but to inflict punishment on their attackers-a practice that is morally questionable by any standards. With extremely low possibilities of surviving, the lives of these German boys became disposable. ![]() Once Germany lost the war, Denmark forced young men from the opposite side, now war prisoners, to defuse the incredible number of mines their country had buried along the coast. The genius underpinning the austere elegance of the film has captivated even those most skeptical about how much one can reframe an overdone historical period.ĭigging into an obscure passage of his homeland’s role in the fight against Nazism in Europe, Zandvliet found the right pieces to assemble a storyline that switches the tables between villains and heroes. In the case of Martin Zandvliet’s Academy Award-nominated Land of Mine, such a statement is a strong compliment.Ĭompeting in the Best Foreign Language Film category, this stripped-down drama, set against the backdrop of the last days of WWII, has garnered much international acclaim, winning awards at home in Denmark, screening in Sundance’s Spotlight section, three European Film Awards and the World Cinema Audience Award at AFI Fest.
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