Though Zandvliet chooses to focus on a few principal personalities rather than dimensionalize all the characters here (several of the Germans never quite become distinct figures), performances are strong down the line.

The German boys are sacrificial lambs very far from the criminal decision making of their Nazi superiors, while the Allied military and Danish citizens here struggle to regain any sense of empathy after five years’ occupation. Though the opening and closing onscreen text underlines this obscure historical chapter as a human-rights case (it arguably violated international laws regarding treatment of POWs), “Land of Mine” is essentially apolitical, showing that at a long war’s end, both sides are simply embittered and exhausted. Despite numerous explosions, just one is portrayed in gory detail, its horrific impact arriving early enough to effectively shadow the more restrained depictions of tragic violence that follow. But Zandvliet’s script and direction avoid milking an innately loaded situation for excess melodrama or pathos, sticking to a discreet economy of approach that accumulates considerable power. There’s a faint sentimental predictability to the thawing of relations between captor and captives, as well as to the accident that refreezes that dynamic before a later redemptive turnabout.

Ebbe (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard), proves more pitiless.

Even the hardened Rasmussen can’t withhold all compassion from these terrified, homesick youths forever, though at a nearby base camp his sneering superior, Cap. Others, like inseparable twins Ernst and Werner (Emil and Oskar Belton), look barely ready for high school. None appears to be on the far side of 20 yet, including natural leader Sebastian (Louis Hofmann) and cynical malcontent Helmut (Joel Basman). They’re probably closer to her age than Rasmussen’s, in any case: These Nazis are just boys who were recruited late in the war to bolster the dwindling Axis ranks. No friendlier is the woman (Laura Bro) whose beachside farmstead they’re camped in, though her little girl (Zoe Zandvliet) is too young to understand why these strangers should be shunned. Rasmussen makes no secret of his loathing toward the enemy combatants and his indifference to their fate - including their immediate starvation, as occupiers at the bottom of the priority list for scarce supplies. Other mishaps will inevitably further winnow the ranks, though the Germans cling to the promise that if they survive, they’ll be sent home. So dangerous is this task that one of the POWs doesn’t even survive their brief training before they begin in earnest.

Land of mine film