Land of Mine best Nordic film in Göteborg

"Land of Mine" by director Martin Zandvliet won the Dragon Award Best Nordic Film on Saturday evening at the closing gala of Göteborg Film Festival.

"Land of Mine," based on historical events, tells the story of a group of young German POWs who are brought to the Danish West Coast to remove landmines from the beaches. Roland Møller won an award at Tokyo Film Festival for his performance as the brutish sergeant in charge of the group. At first scornful and intent on punishing what's left of the Nazi army, the sergeant grows conflicted in his feelings toward the young boys.

The jury, composed of director Laurie Anderson, actress Saga Becker, director Christian Braad Thomsen, screenwriter-producer Sigurjón Kjartansson, photographer Anna Myking and director of the Helsinki Film Festival Sara Norberg, motivated their choice with these words:

"The award goes to a film which shows the tragic cycles of war, when the winners adopt the brutal techniques of the losers. A very intense, suspensful and beautiful film, which depicts the exploitation of children swept into war and that uncovers new facts about postwar Denmark."

On stage in Göteborg. Photo: Göteborg Film Festival

"Land of Mine," produced by Mikael Rieks for Nordisk Film, also received an award by Scandinavian Locations, and the Göteborg Film Festival brought accolades to two more Danish-produced films. Mads Matthiesen's "The Model" received the Sven Nykvist Cinematography Award (Petrus Sjövik), and Rúnar Rúnarsson's "Sparrows" was awarded the international film critics' FIPRESCI prize. Read more in factsheets right

Read Göteborg press release

More accolades to Land of Mine 

On Sunday at the Danish film industry's annual Robert awards, "Land of Mine" scored a total of six awards, including for Best Feature Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

At Friday's awards gala at the Rotterdam Film Festival, the film took home the Audience Award and the young jury's MovieZone Award.

On 3 February, "Land of Mine" was honoured with the dinstinguished Dreyer Award for artistic merit, named after Danish cinema's most distinguished classic figure, Carl Theodor Dreyer.

Read interviews

Martin Zandvliet The Untold Story

Mads Matthiesen The Curse of Being Good-looking

Rúnar Rúnarsson Reality Is a Grayscale

Land of Mine

Martin Zandvliet, 2015

Taking place in May 1945 only a few days after the end of the war, the film tells the story of how a group of German prisoners of war were brought to Denmark and forced to disarm the two million land mines that had been scattered along the West Coast by the German occupying forces. In charge of the enfeebled young men performing the dangerous task is Sergeant Carl Leopold Rasmussen. Like so many of his fellow Danes, he has a deep hatred for the Germans after having suffered five years of hardships during the occupation.

The Model

Mads Matthiesen, 2016

The film tells the story of emerging fashion model Emma who struggles to enter the Parisian fashion scene and develops a deadly obsession for male fashion photographer Shane White.

Sparrows

Rúnar Rúnarsson, 2015

The films follows Ari, 16, who has been living with his mother in Reykjavik and is suddenly sent back to the remote Westfjords to live with his father Gunnar. Here he has to navigate a difficult relationship with his father, and he finds his childhood friends changed. In these hopeless and declining surroundings, Ari has to step up and find his way.

Mads Matthiesen

Director. Born 1976, Denmark. BA in comparative literature and rhetoric, 2005, and MA in modern cultural studies 2009, both from Copenhagen University.

Rúnar Rúnarsson

Director. Born 20 January 1977 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in 2009.