Luis Felipe Alvarez Salazar

Elementary German
Professor: Diana Diaz Kopperger

Under Sanset
Spoiler alert
Summer of 2016 was running, I did not have anything to do and as I had a day off
from my job in a cafeteria, I was scrolling down in Popcorn (a software to watch movies
and series) looking for a movie to watch and I came across this amazing German film
2018thriller and I did not doubt to star watching it. It is directed by Martin Zandvliet, that
according to IMDb he’s the director of another seven films (2018).
The film is based months after the end of the second World War in a beach in
Denmark, where Hitler during the armed conflict ordered thousands of mines to be
planted in the sand to explode tanks and prevent the arrival of allied troops. As it was
after the war and the forty-five thousand mines remained in the beach, and even though
the Geneva convention prohibit this, the Denmark military decided that young Germans
troops that were previously captured with an average of age of 18 years old (deserved to
manually deactivate mine by mine laying in the sand. The troop did not have any other
option but to start the training in removing the device that caused the explosion. When
they finished the training, the Denmark army toke the young group of German soldiers to
a very little town in the mountains to a house where they stayed with no food, barely
water and only their uniforms. As normal, in every group of youngsters, there were
differences and some guy that did not like the other, this created tension with the group.
Differences in the group continued and here is where their Capitan appears, but
he does not do much to prevent conflicts. As the movie goes on, a beautiful dog joins the
group and in a free time they have playing in the beach, the Captain throws the ball to an
area with mines, and unfortunately, tragedy came. As A.O Scott writes in his review: “The
ever-present danger of an explosion — and the certainty that someone is going to be
blown up at some point — creates an undercurrent of dread that the director does not
hesitate to manipulate”(2017). Sadly, this is not the only time someone dies in the movie,
when deactivating a mine, one of the soldiers, did a sudden moves that cost his life.
Luis Felipe Alvarez Salazar
Elementary German
Professor: Diana Diaz Kopperger

The message I get from the movie is that even after the war, the World -especially
the European countries- justifiably, society started to hate the Germans if they belonged
or belong to the army in the World War II. This “hate” or “courage” society had, through
the years have been decreasing and now Germans are seen as a very powerful country,
with an economy to envy and a society full of knowledge and informed of what happened
in the past and unwilling to repeat the mistakes of their ancestors.
The film has very positive messages. The second one is that no matter how the
situation is and how delicate the work you have to do is, if you’re calmed and in an
environment of tranquility, you can achieve anything you have in front. Finally, I rescue
the unity the group developed through the time. If they were in a situation of life and
death and still get along more than fine, why can simple humans beings can’t get along
with other?
Luis Felipe Alvarez Salazar
Elementary German
Professor: Diana Diaz Kopperger

References
Martin Zandvliet. (2018). IMDb. Retrieved from
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1324710/?ref_=tt_ov_dr#director

Scott, A.O. (2017, February 9). Review: ‘Land of Mine,’ an Oscar Nominee, Explores
Postwar Perils and Ethics. The New York Times. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/movies/land-of-mine-
review.html?referrer=google_kp