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

Under sandet

Martin Zandvliet, 2015

Filmen udspiller sig i dagene efter Tysklands kapitulation, maj 1945, regnskabets time efter fem års besættelse. En flok unge tyske krigsfanger udleveres til de danske myndigheder og sendes efterfølgende ud til Vestkysten, hvor de beordres til at fjerne de over 2 millioner miner, som den tyske besættelsesmagt har placeret under sandet langs kysten. Med deres bare hænder, kravlende rundt i sandet, bliver drengene tvunget til at udføre det livsfarlige arbejde under ledelse af den danske militære kaptajn, Carl Leopold Rasmussen.

The Model

Mads Matthiesen, 2016

Den unge, danske fotomodel Emma kæmper for det store gennembrud i den parisiske modeverden.
Hendes rejse til modeverdens centrum, Paris, og det glamourøse liv som topmodel udvikler sig dog til et sandt drama, da Emma møder den attraktive og noget ældre modefotograf Shane. Emma bliver stormfuldt forelsket, og med Shane ved sin side begynder modebranchens døre at åbne sig for hende.

Sparrows

Rúnar Rúnarsson, 2015

Teenageren Ari bor til hverdag i Reykjavík med sin mor Ösp, men da hun må rejse væk med arbejdet, tvinges Ari til at tilbringe sommeren hos sin far Gunnar i Isafjördur, en lille flække i det vestlige Island. Gunnar er alkoholiseret og lever et tarveligt liv på samfundets bund. Han bryder sig bestemt ikke om sin tidligere kones intellektuelle livsstil i Reykjavik, eller om at Ari skal vokse op med hendes nye, danske mand som stedfar.

Mads Matthiesen

Instruktør, født 1976. Bachelor i litteraturhistorie og retorik fra Københavns Universitet, siden uddannet fra instruktørlinjen på den alternative filmskole Super16s filmuddannelsen.
Matthiesens første film på Super16 - kortfilmen "Mum" (2006) - blev udvalgt til Venedig 'Corto Cortissimo', midtvejsfilmen "Dennis" (2007) blev valgt til Sundance og modtog blandt andet Melbourne Film Festivals Grand Prix.

Rúnar Rúnarsson

Instruktør. Født 20. januar 1977 i Reykjavik, Island.