Needless to say, the film is unbearably tense from beginning to end. It’s made clear that the boys are entirely innocent, but you find yourself wondering whether you’d feel the same level of sympathy for them, if they were standard issue evil Nazis familiar from dozens of war pictures. Zandvliet’s script plays complex, shifting games with ideas of sympathy, not least when high-ranking Danish and English officers (including Mikkel Boe Følsgaard as Rasmussen’s sneering superior) show up to drunkenly abuse the boys. Emil and Oskar Belton are both terrific as inseparable, baby-faced identical twins Ernst and Werner.

Hofmann is particularly good as Sebastian, displaying a sensitivity, an intelligence and a sense of compassion that marks him out as a natural leader – all qualities that Rasmussen belatedly comes to appreciate. The young cast are superb, as the naïve soldiers – it’s clear that none of them have seen much action in terms of warfare, each of them having been conscripted by Hitler towards the end of the conflict. Moller is a compelling presence as Rassmussen and his character arc, while admittedly predictable (you can tell he has a soft spot, because he has a cute dog), is immediately engaging. Zandvliet has cast his film extremely well. However, as the boys begin their impossibly dangerous task, he gradually softens towards them, forging a touching bond with their de facto leader, Sebastian (Louis Hofmann). Still boiling with fury after five years of German occupation, Rassmussen isn’t particularly concerned about the welfare of his charges, locking them in a shed at night and barely bothering to feed them.

Soon afterwards, Rassmussen receives a new assignment – he is in charge of training a group of German POWs (most of them teenagers) and then supervising them, as they painstakingly remove some 45,000 landmines from a remote stretch of Danish beach. The film opens with Danish Army Sergeant Rassmussen (Roland Moller) angrily punching defeated German soldiers, as they march out of Denmark. It’s a fascinating and chilling story that marks out Zandvliet as a significant talent to watch. Nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, this gripping Danish war thriller from writer-director Martin Zandvliet is based on a little-known piece of history from the end of WWII. Watch Land of Mine online in the UK: Amazon Prime / BFI Player / Curzon Home Cinema / Apple TV (iTunes) / Amazon Instant Video Cast: Roland Møller, Louis Hofmann, Joel Basman

Land of mine netflix