Comment

Feb 06, 2018
Viscerally powerful yet humanistic. Rife with tedium/tension with occasional bursts of horror (forget the relentless boom-boom of Hurt Locker). Rolland Moller gave a complex/nuanced turn as the Danish sergeant who mistreated the boys then secretly fed them and protected them, until his dog got blown up, then smuggled the survivors back to Germany by putting himself at risk. Echoes of Renoir and René Clair's Jeux Interdits, and Ozu's concept of family, esp. what is "family" in wartime? Original Danish title 'Under the Sand', not to be confused with the very different Under the Sand by Ozon. Check out the illuminating director's Q&A in Special Features.