• Release year: 2024
• Director: Magnus von Horn.
• Producers: Malene Blenkov and Mariusz Wlodarski.
• Screenplay by: Magnus von Horn and Line Langebek Knudsen.
• Cinematography by: Michal Dymek.
• Music by: Frederikke Hoffmeier.

Shotgun Commentary: dark, both in concept and aesthetics, but really, REALLY good.

Review

The Girl With the Needle (original title: Pigen med nålen) is a black and white feature that follows Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne). She is pregnant woman who works in a factory making uniforms for soldiers. Her husband is missing, but not confirmed dead. Because of this, she can’t pay for her lifestyle nor receive any economic help. So, she slowly lowers her quality of living, which wasn’t great to begin with.

The struggle

The feature begins with an age-old story. A rich man takes advantage of a poor woman and promises her a great life. He gets her pregnant, and then washes his hands off her. Of course, the aftermath of their actions is complete immunity for the man, while Karoline loses her job mere months before having yet another mouth to feed on her own.

This moment might be set in the 1920s, but the truth is, it is very much still part of our society today. Men walking out on women after impregnating them is still quite common. But the worst part of it is that society still blames the women who get pregnant instead of condemning the boys who are not man enough to deal with the consequences of their actions.

Furthermore, women are punished for getting pregnant out of wedlock in many countries. Even in those that like to think of themselves as “developed”. Whether it is brutal beatings or policies that force them to give birth against their will, the message is clear: men make the mess and women have to pay the price.

Critical damage

This subject could be explored for hours and hours, but it is merely the starting point of The Girl With the Needle. An almost transactional anecdote to give way to the real horrors. Karoline tries to force an abortion with no success, and a woman, Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm), kindly offers to take her baby when it is born so she can give it to a good family who can’t have children of their own.

*CLICK HERE TO AVOID SPOILERS*

This is a merciful lie to help the mothers dispose of their unwanted babies. Whether they are the result of affairs with smoke-bomb masters, the product of an assault, or simply the result of having zero means to prevent a pregnancy, those kids could not be properly raised. As such, they were given to Dagmar in the hopes of finding them a better life.

However, Dagmar killed and dumped the babies all around the city as a service to the community. Despite being a serial killer of babies, her logic is crushingly sound. Much like farmers put down injured or suffering animals as an act of mercy, she did the same with children who were doomed to a terrible existence in which they would very likely starve to death.

Fatality

The huge moral argument that her actions could provoke is never actually explored in depth, as it is ultimately irrelevant to the story. In fact, when Dagmar discloses that where she has thrown the babies, one quickly realises that it is impossible that nobody noticed or saw them.

This leads to the ultimate conclusion: nobody actually cared. Once you understand that, her actions seem even more justified than ever. A world where nobody bothers to investigate why there is a dead baby floating down the river is certainly the type of environment where a person would conclude that killing babies is the best course of action.

*END OF SPOILERS*

Colourless beauty

The use of black and white throughout the film is a clever move, as it serves to hide the filth and grime and other potential chromatic details that might take away from the actual story. By taking the monochrome road, the spectator pays more attention to shapes and textures.

Each shot looks like it might belong to a photography exhibition at an art gallery. Katerina’s closeups are so gorgeous they provide a stark contrast with her dreadful reality, giving it an artificial feeling, just polished enough to mitigate some of the horrors, but not so much that it will eclipse her reality.

All in all, The Girl With the Needle explores the worst parts of humanity, the inhumane nature of humans, if you will. It is beautiful and horrifying at once. An invitation to think about the human condition and the revolting effects of becoming an uncaring society.

Advice to take from this movie:

• You are the only one who can control when and if you get pregnant, don’t let ANYBODY tell you otherwise.
• If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Check and double-check.
• Abortion is a human right, the only way to save lives is to protect it.

What’s your take? Have you watched The Girl With the Needle? Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or leave a message in my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀