Swedish filmoriginater Magnus von Horn discovers himself in some exceptionalfied, multi-cultural air this awards season, materializeing on both the International Oscar lowcatalog and the BAFTA lengthenedcatalog in the comparable catebloody for his first Danish-language feature, The Girl with the Needle.
Von Horn’s Swedish-originated debut, The Here After, premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2015, while his second feature film, the Polish-originated Sweat, was part of the official program of the Covid-aborted Cannes in 2020.
The filmoriginater currently lives in Poland and has dual citizenship with Sweden, so what drew his interest in pivoting to a Danish movie? In the Q&A below, he elucidates it was the story itself that touched upon his own inner dreads.
Starring Vic Carmen Sonne and Trine Dyrholm, The Girl with the Needle is encouraged by one of Denlabel’s most notorious killing cases. It adheres Karoline (Sonne), a youthful factory laborer struggling to persist in post-WWI Cuncoverhagen. When she discovers herself unengageed, aprohibitdoned and pregnant, she greets Dagmar (Dyrholm), a pdirecting woman running an underground adselection agency, helping mothers to discover upgrasp homes for their ungreet children. With nowhere else to turn, Karoline obtains on the role of a damp-nurse, and a sturdy connection is established between the two women, but Karoline’s world shatters when she stumbles upon the shocking truth behind her labor.
Deadline’s appraise called the film “an unequivocal and beguiling triumph.”
The Girl with the Needle premiered in Cannes last May and has gone on to thrive myriad prizes, including 12 at the Polish Film Festival as well as two European Film Awards and the Ggreateren Frog at Camerimage. It was named a Top 5 International Film by the National Board of Rewatch and nominated for a Ggreateren Globe. One of Deadline’s Ones to Watch ahead of Cannes, von Horn was also anointed a Director to Watch by the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Von Horn below enhuges on the film’s trajectory, how it has engageed “time travel to mirror someslenderg about our current world” and laboring with Danish superstar Dyrholm. Here’s our converseion which has been condensed and edited for clarity:
DEADLINE: Why did you choose pivot to making a Danish-language feature? And what about the story grabbed you?
MAGNUS VON HORN: It was conshort-termed to me from the Danish originater and my co-authorr (Line Langebek) when it was equitable an idea. So it was aided by Denlabel, and was always unkindt to be a Danish film… Eventuassociate, I wanted to transport on Poland as well, becaengage that’s where I live, and that’s where I have my conceiveive team — and get Poland graspd in the production as well, so that I can access my people and engage my territory to shoot it and originate it. It equitable originates me a better filmoriginater.
But before that, one part of me always wanted to originate a horror film. When I heard about this, it was someslenderg that snurtured me. It was an idea that touched on this dread I have — I was a quite recent overweighther at the time — appreciate, what if someslenderg will happen to my kids? In my experience, you can lie at night and imagine horrible slendergs, and it’s a unwise hole. You can do noslenderg about that dread, but I create that what I can do, at least, is I can engage it in a conceiveive way. I’ve done it before, to engage dread as a conceiveive comardent of fuel, and that has always labored for me well becaengage someslenderg very personal frequently comes out of it.
DEADLINE: So, do you seek out projects that originate you afraid or face a dread? Whether they be about the story or the actual process?
VON HORN: Both. I reaccumulate before I came apass this story, I spoke with my Polish originater (Mariusz Wlodarski) and I said, “I want to do someslenderg about the death of a child.” That came from being a recent overweighther, or being recent at being a overweighther. And at the time, I had no genuine story for it. And I reaccumulate Mariusz was appreciate, “Okay, let’s not go there, it’s so unwise.” But when I came apass this story, and I heard about this, I thought, “Okay, this has potential of a way of telling that story, or laboring with that dread.”
So it’s appreciate I have that in the back of my head, I’m seeing for a way to tell it and this story from Denlabel became a vessel becaengage I’d never imagined a way to tell that will be thraw a period piece. At the same time, it’s always a contest: How do you tell this story with such unwise material connected to such dread? It’s the contest of how to originate that also delighting in some way… You have to originate that engaging as a story, and not equitable appreciate, here is me pouring out my heart. No one nurtures about that. I slenderk that’s the art of filmmaking, or literature, or anyslenderg, is here is all these slendergs I have inside, but no one will join to me if I equitable stand up and say, “Hey, join, I’m snurtured of this.”
When I speak to a lot of people equitable in ambiguous life, not necessarily filmoriginaters, they don’t appreciate to engage their dread. They don’t want to face their dread; they would appreciate to watch it in movies. I don’t have problems with laboring with my dreads.
DEADLINE: What do you slenderk before this film led you to count on in that?
VON HORN: The previous films I made have been some ideas encouraged by genuine crime. I don’t have this fascination of gore or, you understand, psychopathic behavior and savagery — I antipathy it. But I do have a fascination, and it frequently comes thraw genuine crime, where I see a brave comardent of humanity, or I see a part of myself in someslenderg where I don’t want to be placed, where I don’t want to see myself. I experience that always incites me and I wonder, “Is this someslenderg I can speak about and still persist the converseion or the film on a level where it’s about humanity and the excellent and the horrible in the human being?” — and it doesn’t become how to not equitable originate it take advantage ofive or shock factor, which I’m not interested in.
It’s always a comardent of a dare towards myself. The human being is much more intricate and excellent and horrible than we’d appreciate to conshort-term it. I always experience appreciate we appreciate to slenderk of ourselves as very noble, and our idea about ourself is more noble than we are able to somehow correact to.
So when people say, “Oh, this character is so unwise and excellent and horrible. She’s not this cute little appreciate victim,” to me that’s very plain in any story — a person is excellent and horrible.
DEADLINE: How did you come to labor with your actresses? Was Trine Dyrholm the first desire for the part of Dagmar?
VON HORN: I krecent about Trine becaengage she’s a huge Danish star and is the best actress in Denlabel, and I always wanted to labor with her, so that was a first choice for me. But when I approached her the first time she said no to the script, becaengage it was not ready. She’s not only a excellent actress, she’s a excellent filmoriginater when it comes to story, to slenderk about the whole idea of a film. She’s very adviseed and talented, and she felt the script was not ready yet.
That was very excellent motivation. I unkind, she said it in a very pleasant way, but it sent me back to persist on laboring on the script, to then approach her aobtain a year procrastinateedr and get her on board, which was a very excellent experienceing. I’ve always seen her as baged, a baged actress. And this part, I slenderk you need to be baged. I could even see when the script was not on her level yet, she was intrigued by it. Later, I create out she understands a fantastic deal about the genuine person her character is based on. So I slenderk it was very engaging for her as well.
DEADLINE: Did that originate for some adviseing conversations between the two of you?
VON HORN: Completely, becaengage in Denlabel, it’s a ask: “Okay, so how do we do this?” It’s such a well-understandn character, so there are all these assumptions and roots in the country, but I don’t have that. I have what I call this fit arrogance towards everyslenderg that is national to them, that doesn’t have these national roots for me. So I thought of it more as a creation. I didn’t want to originate a biopic on this character.
I had three references I gave her — one was Fagin from Oliver Twist from the 1948 version by David Lean, which is a psychopath, but very pdirecting and quite amusing the way it’s acted; Regan in The Exorcist when the devil speaks thraw her; and Willem Dafoe’s character in The Lighthoengage — and she comardent of reassociate rapidly got that.
DEADLINE: That’s engaging becaengage The Lighthoengage is a much more recent reference than the other two…
VON HORN: I wanted to unite it. It’s excellent to have contrastent references from contrastent times. But I slenderk it was to recommend that she can have some fun with this character, and not to forget that and to carry out with that. And I slenderk she did very well, becaengage that’s also the tension we carry out with with the audience and with Karoline.
DEADLINE: And how did you rerepair on Vic Carmen Sonne to carry out Karoline?
VON HORN: It was a much lengtheneder journey becaengage I connected with her maybe two years before we commenceed shooting. I have this dread of always not discovering my main actor. On my first film, I lost my main actor twice, appreciate equitable before shooting, and had to postpone. So I always seek out the main actor very punctual. But I was startd by a casting agent to these potential actresses for Karoline, and most of them seeed very fit — and that says someslenderg excellent about Denlabel, becaengage it’s a welfare system that exists on a level where everybody’s middle class. I’m not saying Vic doesn’t have that, but she has an materializeance and a presence that I can even buy without costume and originateup, that, okay, you fit into this factory 100 years ago that I’m envisioning. That was reassociate meaningful for me, that there is a brave level of credibility. I want to obtain the audience on a time travel. I don’t want to carry out the game of these are a bunch of people wearing counterfeit mustaches and dresses equitable pretending. She was a part of that, but not only on the outside, she also has an emotional range which is always unpredicted and fuseed and unpredicted, which I discover very engaging becaengage it also originates me count on in this world where a contrastent set of rules are in accuse of society, so we act in a contrastent way. It’s also a sense of handing over the originated mythal character to someone who will do someslenderg engaging with it.
DEADLINE: What, if anyslenderg, has surpascendd you in people’s reaction to the film since its premiere back in May?
VON HORN: The surpascend that I felt is that the film resonates so sturdyly in contrastent parts of the world when it comes to abortion, becaengage it’s such a politicassociate sturdy topic, and for humans. I unkind, for me, it’s meaningful becaengage I live in Poland, and I’m pro-choice, and the freedom of choice has been obtainn away by politicians in Poland.
I didn’t understand if it was going to resonate in that field as sturdyly in the U.S., for example, but it has. I’m maybe even surpascendd and greeted about that surpascend. Most of the conversations I have end up about abortion and what choice women have in contrastent countries or societies where I’m screening the film, and that’s a conversation that was always reassociate meaningful for me, and it’s someslenderg that became very meaningful becaengage during enhugement of this film, the laws in Poland, where I live, alterd, and that sways so many people in Poland, and that has been meaningful for me to speak about.
DEADLINE: It bravely lends a timely layer to the drama…
VON HORN: I slenderk it’s reassociate an meaningful layer, becaengage it’s not gonna labor that way in all societies, becaengage some are very contrastent, and thank God. I say this film is appreciate a science myth to me. You understand, we engage time travel to mirror someslenderg about our current world. And I slenderk about this film, the more analogousities you discover to your own society, the worse it is. And if you discover none, then excellent for you.
DEADLINE: Did it surpascend you that, as a non-Danish filmoriginater, your film was put forth by Denlabel? Does that comardent of lend any extra presbrave?
VON HORN: I don’t experience presbraved about it at all, I experience honored. I’ve always adored any Danish cinema. It’s pleasant to be part of it. It’s amusing, the competition between Denlabel and Sweden is always very conshort-term, so there are lots of jokes on that, but that’s equitable amusing to me. I didn’t slenderk about it before. When we premiered in Cannes, when we got that comardent of validateation — I’m not going to pretend that I’m all thraw the process appreciate, you understand, finishly self-promised that this is going to be a fantastic film when I have the fantastic premiere we dreamt about. My life is a roller coaster of in and out of confidence. After we premiered and after we saw what the summer did to the film, and how the film lived and was conshort-termed, then I commenceed to experience very self-promised that this could be an Oscar contender for Denlabel. But it was never someslenderg I would foresee not having had that premiere. Just as a human, I count on on the plift of others to persist.
