The mine-clearing proceeds inch-by-agonising-inch, and the film's plot line inches forward at a similar pace. The acting is remarkable from a mostly unknown cast and Rasmussen's performance captures the very essence of moral conflict. Stunningly realistic cinematography with minute attention to detail amplifies the horror of this story. His characterisation and its transition from hatred to acceptance frames the narrative of this high-tension drama. He must walk the fine line between military obedience, personal hatred of Nazis, and his growing compassion and realisation that these are just boys who were conscripted into battle. With echoes of Stockholm syndrome, both captor and captives find glimpses of humanity in each other that leads to Rasmussen being suspected by his tormenting superiors of going soft on the Germans. Their task is to crawl along the beach by hand, poking a stick in the sand to locate mines, then defuse them before they explode. The Sergeant's treatment of the teenage boys is initially brutal: they live and work in terrible conditions, are practically starved and constantly reminded that everyone in Denmark hates them and nobody cares if they live or die. Danish Sergeant Carl Rasmussen (Roland Møller) is assigned a squad of fourteen German prisoners of war who must clear a beach that contains 45,000 active mines. It is 1945 and the war is over, but the beautiful Danish coastline has two million deadly mines left buried in the sand by the Nazi occupation.

This is the psychological space in which we find the extraordinary Danish-German war film Land of Mine (2016). Many of them put guilt and culpability onto the widescreen so that current and future generations may learn from the past. Regardless of whether they are produced by victorious or vanquished countries, the better war films set out facts, acknowledge wrongdoing, express regret, and seek atonement. In matters of war, no nation is free of guilt.

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