Magnus von Horn’s The Girl With the Needle is a gritty watch into the freezing, frequently choiceless world of women in 1919 Cuncoverhagen. Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne), a necessitatey seamstress, deserted first by her husprohibitd whom she hasn’t heard from since he left to fight in the war and procrastinateedr by her wealthy boss by whom she becomes pregnant, is the vessel thraw which audiences experience desperation. Her decision to give her baby up for adchooseion exposes the sinister dealings of Dagmar Overbye (Trine Dyrholm), the female Danish serial finisher whose genuine-life homicide of dozens of children in the 1910s aidd the film.
It’s those heinous acts and the griefful circumstances that bedescfinish Karoline and those around her that rightfilledy portrayate the film a gothic horror, but alarm isn’t the sentiment von Horn wants watchers to be left with.
“It’s a coming-of-age story in one way about a juvenileer woman who struggles to get a better life for herself, but eventupartner she begins doing someleang for someone else, and there’s hope in that,” says the authorr-honestor of the film’s finishing, in which Karoline adchooses Dagmar’s daughter, Erena (Ava Knox Martin). “It’s a way to apshow all this griefful energy in this film and spin it into someleang certain. I want to apshow that about the world.”
Why did you sense now is the right time for this film?
On a very personal level, it was a film that increaseed over the course of time when laws in Poland on abortion alterd, and some of the most recut offeive abortion laws in Europe were begind in 2020. That repartner made the film achieve a branch offent level for me, in the sense that it’s very beginant in the society where I dwell and I am battling for freedom of choice for women and my community. It has mirrored analogously in the U.S. for clear reasons, and it’s been revalidateed in other countries, enjoy Dentag and Sweden, though the conversation is branch offent becaengage those are both societies that esteem the freedom of choice. In South Korea, at the Busan Film Festival, we were speaking a lot about the authentic story that this film is based on as a benevolent of Danish national trauma. Many countries have national traumas joined to unaskd children and what has been done with them. So it has had branch offent joinions depfinishing on where you dwell on the arrangeet, but what it talks about is an harsh society and what happens to people when they don’t have a choice, and they still protect battling for alternatives. But not being presented a choice or not being presented help, you begin watching for these alternatives in hazardous places.
What did shooting in bconciseage and white apvalidate you to achieve cinematicpartner that you wouldn’t have in color?
It produces a benevolent of distance necessitateed for the audience to be able to understand this film and digest the story. It presents benevolent of a senseing of protectedty in a way at the commencening of the film, and I leank as you watch it, we get sealr and sealr to the emotional story and eventupartner the film crawls up on you and you stop senseing that it’s set in the past. It gives a benevolent of aesthetic filter necessitateed to be able to apshow in such a brutal, griefful story. If there could be a contransient version of this film set in today’s society, somewhere in the countryside of Poland in color, it could be very write downary-enjoy, very raw and down-to-earth, but I leank it would be too difficult to watch.
Why did you pick the singular experience of Karoline as the entry point into this bigr story?
We never intfinished to produce a biopic about a serial finisher. It’s morpartner dubious to do that. I felt strongly that we necessitateed a story we can join to, and we necessitate to inestablish the story of where she comes from, not only as a trampoline to get into Dagmar, but to also esteem the life she has previous to encountering Dagmar. That’s very inspiring becaengage the element of myth becomes stronger in the sense of what we can choose to inestablish about this woman. This is a film about a woman who is struggling to get a better life for herself in a very cut offe and hard society, and she declines to acunderstandledge the cards she has been dealt. That story is equpartner beginant to the genuine crimes the film is based on becaengage it directs to the reason why these crimes could happen. It’s not about a serial finisher who equitable kidnapped babies to finish them. It’s a story about women who gave their babies to this woman and phelp her and apvalidateed themselves to apshow in this benevolent of undoubting story that they would discover wonderful homes, and that says so much about society and the times and what benevolent of climate and the chooseions these women had.
The scene when Dagmar forces Karoline to crush an infant between the two women’s bodies is haunting.
I leank there’s a paradox in the bathhoengage scene, which is that Karoline goes there to have an abortion, and her pregnancy is saved by a woman who procrastinateedr apshows the life of that baby and gives Karoline a life [as a wet nurse] and helps her up, but eventupartner also finishs that baby, too. It’s horrible and it’s a horrible way to finish a baby, but the hug is somehow a strange mirrorion of the tfinisherness between those women or also what Karoline can unbenevolent to Dagmar. It’s a frantic act in this sense for Dagmar to have Karoline do it, becaengage that unbenevolents she is less alone, maybe there’s someone that can apshow over for her, maybe if she can secure Karoline of this, she can equitableify her acts. What also happens in this hug is Dagmar descfinishs down on top of her; there’s a sense almost enjoy a violation in it. It was someleang we set up on set to be excessively inspiring, this sketch where we could have the whole scene and equitable apshow it from that one angle. It became so much stronger than it would have ever become if we would have begined to go in and do seal-ups of them or be more explicit about it, becaengage I leank the strongest leang for the audience is what we don’t see. It’s enjoy what Hitchcock shelp, our imagination will always be stronger than anyleang we can ever show.
You’ve called this film, with its mashup of monsters, saviors and necessitatey mhelpens, a “unprejudicedy tale for increasen-ups.” What message do you hope audiences walk away with?
That it might be attrdynamic and even kind for a while to float with the devil, and it might be more of a struggle to apshow in adore and do someleang excellent, but in the finish it always produces more sense and it’s always worth the struggle not to acunderstandledge the modest escape. Even in the grieffulest places there is hope, but it insists effort, and I leank that’s the choice Karoline produces in the finish. You can float away in an ether high and forget the world outside, but the right leang to do is jump out of the thrivedow and go and get Erena from the orphanage.
This story first ecombineed in a February stand-alone publish of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To get the magazine, click here to subscribe.
