Danish Oscar Hopeful: ‘The Girl With the Needle’

Magnus von Horn talks about his 1920s abortion drama and modern-day parallels: “Poland, where I live, is also a society that has taken away the freedom of choice for women.”

It is the third film from Swedish director Magnus von Horn (Sweat, The Hear After).

The 1920s-set drama, loosely based on a true story, follows a poor but resilient seamstress, played by Danish actress Vic Carmen Sonne, who finds herself unemployed, pregnant and desperate after being impregnated by a wealthy lover who refuses to marry her. She is left with two unpleasant choices: A dangerous and, at the time in Denmark, illegal home abortion, or the services of Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm), a sinister candy store owner who runs a backstreet adoption agency.

Shot in shimmering black and white — Von Horn drew inspiration from David Lynch’s The Elephant Man and Spielberg’s Schindler’s List to create “credible time travel, for the audience to believe you are in this place” — The Girl With the Needle is a dark and harrowing story about the violence done to women by a society that denies them bodily autonomy.

Making the film, Von Horn, who lives in Poland, said he kept “finding similarities between the world today, the world back then, and also the world in Poland, which is also a society that has taken away the freedom of choice for women.”

Mubi is releasing The Girl With the Needle in the U.S. on Friday, December 6.

Check out the video interview below.

‘The Girl With The Needle’ | Q&A with Magnus von Horn & Agnieszka Holland

Girl With the Needle, The: Denmark’s Entry for Best International Oscar (Abortion Drama)

Danish Oscar Hopeful: ‘The Girl With the Needle’

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