Denmark’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at the upcoming Academy Awards (and recently shortlisted in that category), The Girl with the Needle is the latest work from director Magnus von Horn (Sweat, The Here After) and inspired by the true story of female Danish serial killer Dagmar Overbye. But the film brings us to the story via a young Copenhagen factory worker, Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne), whose husband has apparently died in The Great War (World War I) and she is being kicked out of her apartment for being months behind in the rent.
Her privileged boss at the factory, Jorgen (Joachim Fjelstrup), is actually taken with her and wants to marry her, but his controlling mother puts a quick end to those plans and fires Karoline in the process, even after finding out she’s pregnant with her son’s child. After attempting to self-abort the baby at a bathhouse with a knitting needle (thus the film’s title), Karoline meets a kindly older woman, Dagmar (the great Trine Dyrholm), who offers to take the child after birth and give it to a good family for a small fee. When the time comes, Karoline turns over her child but cannot pay, offering up her services as a wet nurse for other brokered children, in order to pay off her debt. Dagmar takes pity on the young woman and offers her a position in her meager organization and a room in the back of the candy shop Dagmar uses as a front.
Shot bleakly but beautifully in black-and-white by Michael Dymek, The Girl with the Needle is almost oppressive in its atmosphere and tension. While a strong bond forms between these two women, all of that goes to hell when Karoline discovers the graphic truth about the true nature of Dagmar’s business. To make matters worse (and making the film one that would sit well in David Lynch’s catalog), Karoline’s husband unexpectedly returns home from the war horribly disfigured, wearing a partial mask that covers up his facial wounds but making him feel monstrous. When she flat out rejects him early in the film, he flees to join the freak show at a local carnival. In moments of true desperation, she returns to him because he can’t help but love her, but she is repulsed by him and he’s fully aware of it.
Almost imperceptibly, the film transitions from a blunt critique of the judgmental, moralistic society at the time to a bold, Gothic horror movie, complete with the severe shadows and grimy realism. Karoline wants to be a good person, worthy of love, but as she discovers the true nature of her employer, she realizes that once again, she’s stumbled into the path of terrible people. The film is fairly graphic in its depiction of Dagmar’s deeds and mesmerizing as a chamber piece about two women rejected by polite society, both of whom believe they are providing a service to better the cruel world around them.
The Girl with the Needle is an extraordinary work that some audience members may have trouble taking in and accepting; thus is the burden of unapologetic films.
The film is now playing exclusively at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
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