World War II · Film · 2015
Land of Mine
Under sandet
After the liberation of Denmark in May 1945, a hardened Danish sergeant is put in charge of teenage German prisoners forced to clear a beach of landmines with their bare hands.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 1 places.
Stop 1: West coast of Jutland, Skallingen
Key location
Crawling across the sand, the boys probe for mines one by one, starving and counting the days until they are promised to go home.
What really happened
Germany had fortified Denmark's west coast as part of the Atlantic Wall and buried more than 1.3 million mines along its shores. After the liberation, an agreement between the Danish government, British forces and the German command put more than 2,000 German prisoners, many of them teenagers, to work clearing them between May and September 1945.
Of these prisoners, 149 were killed and 165 severely wounded. The practice breached the 1929 Geneva Convention, which banned forcing prisoners of war into dangerous work, and has since been widely condemned. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- Under sandet
- Directed by
- Martin Zandvliet
- Countries
- Denmark, Germany
- Languages
- Danish, German
- Released
- 2015
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Prisoners of war
- True story
