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On this page: THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE

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See also: SHADOWS FILM FESTIVAL | Last update 11.Dec.24

The Girl With the Needle Pigen Med Nålen
Review by Rich Cline | 4/5

MUST SEE

dir Magnus von Horn
scr Line Langebek Knudsen, Magnus von Horn
prd Malene Blenkov, Mariusz Wlodarski
with Vic Carmen Sonne, Trine Dyrholm, Besir Zeciri, Ava Knox Martin, Joachim Fjelstrup, Tessa Hoder, Ari Alexander, Benedikte Hansen, Soren Saetter-Lassen, Per Thiim Thim, Dan Jakobsen, Anna Tulestedt
release US 6.Dec.24,
UK 10.Jan.25
24/Denmark 2h03

CANNES FILM FEST
TORONTO FILM FEST

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Shot in black and white with an extraordinary visual sensibility, this Danish drama is inspired by true events, taking on a current topic in timeless style. Director Magnus von Horn creates unusually vivid characters who have complex reactions to events that relate to birth, death, disability and the moral fallout from war. So emotions run high, and the film often begins to feel more like horror than drama.

In 1910 Copenhagen, Karoline (Sonne) is struggling to find work without proof of her husband's death. Indeed, Peter (Zeciri) has survived the war, although he's been seriously injured. And Karoline has a wealthy new boyfriend Jorgen (Fjelstrup), who is forbidden from marrying her. Then when she tries to end her pregnancy, she meets Dagmar (Dyrholm), who takes in women with unwanted babies. Unable to pay her bill, she begins working with Dagmar and her daughter Erena (Martin). What Karoline discovers in Dagmar's house is shocking, as is the way she opts to navigate the situation.

Stunning sequences fill the screen, including an extended visit to a creepy war-themed circus where Karoline is all too familiar with the freak who's on show. Her journey through this narrative is a properly overwhelming odyssey that circles around the enormous issues in her life, including the birth of her illegitimate child, the return of her husband and a confrontation with actions that thoroughly boggle her mind (and ours too). Through all of this, we are right with her, guided by Michal Dymek's astonishing cinematography.

Sonne is fully invested in Karoline's inner life, so her thoughts and feelings are clear even though she doesn't say much. Each person she interacts with feels like a challenge, bringing unexpected twists into Karoline's situation that require enormously thorny decision-making. Her scenes with the wonderfully opaque Dyrholm are particularly well-played, packed with nuance and chilling details. Zeciri gives Peter a strikingly humane soul, while Martin's young Erena is fascinating in her unpredictability.

"I only did what you're too scared to do," Dagmar says sternly to men who dare to judge her. "You should give me a medal." At the centre of this film is the way a male-dominated society uses and discards women in a range of cruel ways. This is expressed throughout the story, emerging in each event Karoline faces. Of course, this also makes the film unusually grim at times. But the script finds lovely sparks of life along the way, including a proper blast of hopefulness in the end.

themes, violence, sexuality 15.Dec.24

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See also: SHADOWS FILM FESTIVAL