„The Girl with the Needle” in Competition at Cannes. Film by Magnus von Horn is about a woman seeking love and the sense of morality. Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne), a young factory worker, is struggling to survive in post WWI Copenhagen. In her hour of need she seeks help from the woman she’s just met (Trine Dyrholm). Due to horrific circumstances of their encounter, Karoline and Dagmar start to develop a special bond. Press materials for the film dub it a “fairytale about a horrible truth” and a story that will affect all the viewer’s senses.

“The Girl with the Needle” – a horrifying fairy tale

“I always wanted to go into genre-filmmaking. I wanted to tell my story in a context of horror. But the more I tried to develop a horror movie the more drama came out” – shares Magnus von Horn in a conversation with members of the Polish Film Institute, when speaking about the beginning of his film’s journey. The story is based on factual events and is co-written by Danish screenwriter Line Langebek Knudsen. The horror elements are highly visible in this black and white feature with terrific photography by Polish cinematographer, Michał Dymek. Thanks to his ingenious eye, the film has a disturbing, thick atmosphere that purposefully refers to the films and photography of early XXth Century.

“We wanted to move a little bit away from realism and to try to build an aesthetically interesting world. Not to make a copy (of Copenhagen) or historically correct image” – adds Magnus von Horn in a conversation with Polish Film Institute. For that reason the majority of filming took place in Poland – in Łódź, Zgierz and regions of Lower Silesia – Wrocław and Bystrzyca Kłodzka. Additionally three shooting days took place in Göteborg in Sweden. “Copenhagen doesn’t look anything like Bystrzyca Kłodzka, but that’s our conscious decision to not make a replica of that city, but rather an image of a place from a hundred years ago” – adds the director. Von Horn mentions that the team purposefully looked for places that looked the oldest and the most neglected in the most visually rich and spectacular way.

“We wanted to make a film that could be dubbed a “fairy tale” or a fable from the world of Brothers Grimm. We play around with the concept of a princess, who awaits her savior on a white horse”, whilst simultaneously shaking her off the delusions and dreams – adds Mariusz Włodarski, Polish producer of the film from Lava Films, during the conversation inside the Polish Film Institute.

The creative team behind the film

Magnus von Horn is the director and the co-writer of “The Girl with the Needle”. The graduate of Łódź Film School co-wrote the script with Line Langebek. Cast consists of: Vic Carmen Sonne, Trine Dyrholm and Besir Zeciri.

The Polish team

The newest film by Magnus von Horn is a Danish-Polish-Swedish co-production. The main producers are Malene Blenkov from Nordisk Film Creative Alliance (Denmark) and Mariusz Włodarski from Lava Films (Poland).  The polish team included ; Luiza Skrzek who is the production manager, Michał Dymek the cinematographer and Agnieszka Glińska who is responsible for the editing. Jagna Dobesz is the production designer. Małgorzata Fudala is the costume designer. Poles were also responsible for visual effects (SFX), stunt work, make-up, transportation and were the heads of administrative departments. In total over 140 Polish creatives worked on the film.

The Match Factory is the international sales agent for the film.