After festival screenings in 12 different countries over the last three months, Martin Zandvliet’s (pictured) Land of Mine opened in Denmark yesterday. In this interview the director speaks about non-violence, humanism, Roland Møller, family values and films from the 70s.

Do you expect the film to raise a lot of controversy in Denmark as it sheds a light on a little known chapter of Danish history –when young German PoWs were forced to defuse land mines off the West coasts of Denmark after WW2 - while at the same time questioning the wider ‘eye for an eye’ principle …
Martin Zandvliet: People seem to find it easier to talk about a war that took place 70 years ago then decisions taken now. The film does raise many questions that are relevant today. Basically, we haven’t learnt anything from history. We still make decisions out of revenge, hate. Politicians talk about refugees, terrorism to awaken instincts in people and get their approval to ‘do to them what they did to us', but for me the eye for an eye principle simply doesn’t work. 

In Land of Mine the main character sergeant Rasmussen played by Roland Møller undergoes a moral transformation. He changes from a man full of hatred for the young Germans, to a compassionate human being. This is a message of hope…
MZ: Had I done a totally true story, none of the young German soldiers would have survived and gone back home. But as a human being, I need hope. Even if we did something wrong, I believe we are able to change, turn around and say no, I did something terrible.

When you try to defeat monsters, you have to be careful not to become a monster yourself. In that battle you might lose all the values that you’re fighting for. Society might become one built on fear, and that’s wrong.

What triggered you to direct a war – or anti-war-movie - after two films about comedians - Applause and A Funny Man (Dirch)?
MZ:
For me it wasn’t such a big jump. The film also tells the flip side of a coin. In Dirch I could have directed a happy comedy but I chose to focus on the darker sides within Dirch Passer. In Applause, Paprika Steen actually plays my father, so although she is a woman, it’s about betrayal and father/son relationships. Land of Mine is also a kind of father/son story and there is a lot of me in the young boy Sebastian the main character Sgt Carl Rasmussen as well.  The film is also about human beings having the same needs and not being so different from one another.  I didn’t want the film to be a dusty war movie!

The scenes when the young German boys try to defuse the mines are absolutely nerve-wracking and very realistic. Did you get military guidance?
MZ:
Yes we did have military personnel who advised us on how to act, stand, react.
Having seen so many war movies, my ambition was to make a film that was very tough and gripping.

Did you have other war movies in mind?
MZ: My references actually were not war movies, but films from the 70s like Marathon Man or Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Basically I love characters. I think that you can have the most dramatic structure and plot in a movie, if the characters aren’t alive and believable, it doesn’t work for me. I need to go for the faces, for the emotion. Films from the 60s-70s were all about characters and thank god it’s coming back now. 

Was it a challenge for you to cast mostly non-professional actors? Even Roland Møller wasn’t such a familiar face on screen…
MZ: It’s always a challenge when you make a movie with substantial money and you decide not to cast stars in the main roles.
I find that Roland Møller is one of the most authentic actors that we have. He has something that you cannot learn at school. The same goes for the young German boys. We worked hard with the casting agent to find those boys who could deliver a line and understand what the film was about.

I did something where the boys had to rehearse for three-four parts, without knowing what part they would get. That gave them a greater overall understanding of the story. Then in the casting room I had them play the various characters and suddenly they all stood out.

Land of Mine was very much a family affair for you, with your wife the DOP Camilla Hjelm Knudsen on board and your 8 year-old daughter in one of the parts. That must have been special…
MZ: Camilla and I have worked many years together and she is a remarkable cinematographer. We share the same ideas, the love for faces, the intensity of the scene. 

I believe in the Cassavetes feeling…without the alcohol, of working as a close team, with family.  My father left when I was three, so I don’t want to be the absent father. I want my kids to be around and see what we do in our daily job. 

You seem to have various offers for English language films – A Willing Patriot with Liam Neeson and the thriller Kursk produced by Europa Corps. Which one will be next?
MZ:
I have very good stuff coming my way, but I’m not sure yet which project will be first. I can’t speak about it right now. 

Do you expect the film to raise a lot of controversy in Denmark as it sheds a light on a little known chapter of Danish history –when young German PoWs were forced to defuse land mines off the West coasts of Denmark after WW2 - while at the same time questioning the wider ‘eye for an eye’ principle …
Martin Zandvliet: People seem to find it easier to talk about a war that took place 70 years ago then decisions taken now. The film does raise many questions that are relevant today. Basically, we haven’t learnt anything from history. We still make decisions out of revenge, hate. Politicians talk about refugees, terrorism to awaken instincts in people and get their approval to ‘do to them what they did to us', but for me the eye for an eye principle simply doesn’t work. 

In Land of Mine the main character sergeant Rasmussen played by Roland Møller undergoes a moral transformation. He changes from a man full of hatred for the young Germans, to a compassionate human being. This is a message of hope…
MZ: Had I done a totally true story, none of the young German soldiers would have survived and gone back home. But as a human being, I need hope. Even if we did something wrong, I believe we are able to change, turn around and say no, I did something terrible.

When you try to defeat monsters, you have to be careful not to become a monster yourself. In that battle you might lose all the values that you’re fighting for. Society might become one built on fear, and that’s wrong.

What triggered you to direct a war – or anti-war-movie - after two films about comedians - Applause and A Funny Man (Dirch)?
MZ:
For me it wasn’t such a big jump. The film also tells the flip side of a coin. In Dirch I could have directed a happy comedy but I chose to focus on the darker sides within Dirch Passer. In Applause, Paprika Steen actually plays my father, so although she is a woman, it’s about betrayal and father/son relationships. Land of Mine is also a kind of father/son story and there is a lot of me in the young boy Sebastian the main character Sgt Carl Rasmussen as well.  The film is also about human beings having the same needs and not being so different from one another.  I didn’t want the film to be a dusty war movie!

The scenes when the young German boys try to defuse the mines are absolutely nerve-wracking and very realistic. Did you get military guidance?
MZ:
Yes we did have military personnel who advised us on how to act, stand, react.
Having seen so many war movies, my ambition was to make a film that was very tough and gripping.

Did you have other war movies in mind?
MZ: My references actually were not war movies, but films from the 70s like Marathon Man or Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Basically I love characters. I think that you can have the most dramatic structure and plot in a movie, if the characters aren’t alive and believable, it doesn’t work for me. I need to go for the faces, for the emotion. Films from the 60s-70s were all about characters and thank god it’s coming back now. 

Was it a challenge for you to cast mostly non-professional actors? Even Roland Møller wasn’t such a familiar face on screen…
MZ: It’s always a challenge when you make a movie with substantial money and you decide not to cast stars in the main roles.
I find that Roland Møller is one of the most authentic actors that we have. He has something that you cannot learn at school. The same goes for the young German boys. We worked hard with the casting agent to find those boys who could deliver a line and understand what the film was about.

I did something where the boys had to rehearse for three-four parts, without knowing what part they would get. That gave them a greater overall understanding of the story. Then in the casting room I had them play the various characters and suddenly they all stood out.

Land of Mine was very much a family affair for you, with your wife the DOP Camilla Hjelm Knudsen on board and your 8 year-old daughter in one of the parts. That must have been special…
MZ: Camilla and I have worked many years together and she is a remarkable cinematographer. We share the same ideas, the love for faces, the intensity of the scene. 

I believe in the Cassavetes feeling…without the alcohol, of working as a close team, with family.  My father left when I was three, so I don’t want to be the absent father. I want my kids to be around and see what we do in our daily job. 

You seem to have various offers for English language films – A Willing Patriot with Liam Neeson and the thriller Kursk produced by Europa Corp. Which one will be next?
MZ:
I have very good stuff coming my way, but I’m not sure yet which project will be first. I can’t speak about it right now.