In fact, the latter won, its victory inviting to be read as something of a political statement against President Trump's controversial Muslim country travel ban.
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That for me gave it more impact than three of the category's fellow nominees, albeit the three I experienced at home rather than the big screen.ĭespite the Oscars' penchant for acknowledging this pivotal 20th century conflict, pundits and prognosticators were right to recognize that Land of Mine was trailing the frontrunners Toni Erdmann and The Salesman. Zandvliet's film calls your attention to a footnote of European history few probably know about and it breaks your heart in the process. Land of Mine punches you in the gut repeatedly, although at least it isn't as relentlessly bleak and zoned-in as last year's Foreign Language winner, the Hungarian Holocaust drama Son of Saul. He remains a madman, whose greatest grief involves a dog who tags around him. But despite these glimpses of compassion and humanity (and the stands he secretly takes against his commanding officer), In time, he's even giving them a day off and playing soccer with them on the beach.
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Sergeant Carl shows no mercy.until he steals some bread and vegetables for them. At one point, they get sick after stealing what they think is food from a nearby barn. As if that wasn't bad enough, the boys are also malnourished. One survives the explosion with his arms and legs turned into bloody monstrosities. One boy blows himself up during training. Land of Mine features the kind of tension that made The Hurt Locker so riveting. They report to Sergeant Carl Rasmussen (Roland Møller), who shows these youths no sympathy and is determined to keep them on their three-month schedule.Īs you can imagine, this is perilous work. A group of fourteen is charged with uncovering and disarming thousands of mines buried in beach sands. The eldest appear to be in their mid-teens. Young German prisoners of war are assigned to defuse mines buried along the West Coast of Denmark. The film is set in 1945, the immediate aftermath of the war. This year's nominee was Land of Mine, a gut-wrenching Danish-German drama written and directed by Martin Zandvliet. It also is available on demand.It seems like there's always a film about World War II competing for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. ET/11-noon PT on SiriusXM’S political channel POTUS. “PopPolitics,” hosted by Variety’s Ted Johnson, airs 2-3 p.m. Steve Ross, the author of “Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics,” is skeptical that celebrities are all that effective in changing minds when they speak out about President Donald Trump. In total, 2,000 POWs were assigned to diffuse 1.5 million landmines, according to some estimates, and casualties were high. The sergeant has a hatred for the Germans, but gradually gains some sympathy for his POWs, all of them teenage boys who have long odds of ever getting to return home. The movie focuses on a Danish sergeant (Roland Moller) who supervises a group of German POWs tasked with defusing the mines. That is why I think on a very local scale this movie is very global.”
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And now we are afraid this will all go up in smoke and close our borders. Rieks says, “It is very very important to note that the longest period of peace in European history has been the past 70 years, because nations are united. They are feelings that we still have.” He said that he was “kind of shocked about how relevant” the movie is given that so much reflects hate and fear. Try to make it as contemporary and emotional as possible. He said that “when people see it, they don’t just see it as a dusty old period piece.