de facto film reviews 3 stars

The Girl With the Needle is a Danish film, from director Magnus von Horn, who previously made the film Sweat, set in the world of aerobics. This film is decidedly not that one, as this is an account of child serial killer Dagmar Overbye, who operated in Copenhagen  between 1913-1920. Focusing on a factory worker named Karoline, played with haunted depth by the radiant yet achingly sad Vic Carmen Sonne, the film begins during the final days of the First World War.

Courtesy MUBI

Karoline, as the film begins, works as a seamstress in a factory and is looking for monetary assistance but cannot prove that her husband, who went to war and who is out of communication, is actually dead. The factory owner and Karoline begin a relationship, each believing her husband is gone. This results in a pregnancy, which leads Karoline to deciding she cannot keep her child. She had earlier attempted to abort the child, and was stopped by an older woman, Dagmar, who told her she should have the child and give it to her to adopt to a worthy family. So, she hands over her child, paying Dagmar for this service.

Eventually, she comes to live and work with Dagmar, discovering that the old woman does not adopt the babies. She kills them, either strangling them, putting them in ovens or lavatories or drowning them in sewers, all of which double as means of disposal. The film does not graphically depict any of this, but does not need to. Trine Dyrholm is quietly, humanly diabolic as a “logical” killer, who seems to truly believe she is doing the right thing, helping the children as well as society.  Ultimately, that is what the film is about, a critique of a society now and at a time of change.

Courtesy MUBI

For many, the First World War normalized the mass killing of humans. Here, in the world of the film, wartime and post-war Copenhagen is an impressionistic, black and white hellscape of twisting paths and distant destinations. The shattered bodies of the returning soldiers epitomize the horror at the root of society. When Karoline visits a circus, she is called onstage to “stick a finger” into the hole in the face of one of the veterans. This moment crystalizes the bizarre and the terror the world has slipped into.

Augmented by Frederikke Hoffmeier’s near constant, unbalancing score, the film achieves a delirium which harkens back to the German Impressionist era, and one could see Lang or Murnau being interested in such material. The film takes a story about a woman in an impossible situation and examines the ways in which agency are stripped or perverted, not just because she is a woman but because of her class.  There is a feeling, from the moment the film begins, that Karoline is heading down. The question becomes, can she survive her landing and will she ever manage to get back up, even a little?

Courtesy MUBI

Wisely, the film gives us a lot of time to invest in her and her situation, not introducing Dagmar for nearly half the film’s run time. We get to know her circle of people, work-mates, a lover and more. We see how the society she belongs to treats people in her circumstances and we grow to care about her because we are given reasons to invest. By the time the film wraps, the viewer will know these characters, and understand their place in their world. It is both clear eyed and yet, ever so slightly hopeful. Cruelty exists, but so do kindness, love, affection and forgiveness. Even the lost may be found. To say more would be to spoil the true pleasures of the film, but do not miss this one.

The Girl with the Needle is now playing in select theaters.