The Girl With the Needle

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The Girl With the Needle

2024

2h 3m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

92%

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110 Reviews

86%

Popcornmeter

100+ Ratings

A standout selection from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE is a dark fairy tale about one woman's search for tenderness and morality in a cruel world. Both eerie and exquisite, writer-director Magnus von Horn's latest film tracks young factory worker Karoline as she struggles to survive in post-WWI Copenhagen. When she ends up unemployed, abandoned and pregnant, the charismatic Dagmar takes her in to help run an underground adoption agency for unwanted children. The two women form an unexpected bond, until a sudden revelation changes everything. Based on a chilling true story, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE presents a masterful gothic vision with profound contemporary resonance. Denmark's Best International Feature Film entry to the 97th Academy Awards® also features EFA-nominated performances from Vic Carmen Sonne and Trine Dyrholm, gorgeous cinematography by EO's Michał Dymek, and a spellbinding score by Frederikke Hoffmeier (Puce Mary).

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Critics Consensus

Threading its grim tale through sumptuous black-and-white photography, The Girl with the Needle is a haunting parable made with superb craft.

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Catherine Wheatley

Sight & Sound

Von Horn isn’t making a social treatise but an adult fairytale.

Nov 11, 2025

Full Review

Tara Brady

Irish Times

The ever-reliable Dyrholm is both charismatic and curdling as the grubby matriarch. But most of the film is writ large and affectingly in Sonne’s agonised face.

Rated: 5/5

Feb 28, 2025

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Michael O'Sullivan

Washington Post

Sonne delivers a twitchy performance, lurching from meek withdrawal to rage.

Rated: 3/4

Feb 3, 2025

Full Review

Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

As a Scandinavian historical drama, it embraces psychological horror with a refined aesthetic, but overall, the narrative stumbles on more than one occasion when synthesizing its text on abortion and the social condition of women. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 6/10

Sep 1, 2025

Full Review

Mauricio Jarufe Caballero

Cinencuentro

Unlike other European art-house films, this is a film with agile editing, tight sequences, a certain paranoid tone reminiscent of German Expressionism, mid-century Gothic, and some echoes of Eastern European cinema of the 1960s...[Full review in Spanish]

May 28, 2025

Full Review

Sebastian Zavala Kahn

Cinencuentro

More terrifying than any commercial horror film, the film develops dread and tension through situations that frequently occurred in Western societies at the beginning of the 20th century and that could still happen today. [Full review in Spanish].

Rated: 4/5

May 23, 2025

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Melissa

Absolutely brutal and unsparing look at life in poverty in post-WWI Denmark and how some people will go to any length to survive. Not for the faint of heart.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/08/25

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Claudio C

Pigen med nålen / The Girl with the Needle (2024) Too Heavy and Depressing Drama (12,067 – 16 Nov 2025 – by Claudio Carvalho) If you like to read my reviews, see my Blog. Unfortunately RT does not like reviews of serious themes and does not publish them. They just want small sentences, but not a review. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "A Garota da Agulha" ("The Girl with the Needle") My Blog: https://maniacosporfilme.wordpress.com/

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/17/25

Full Review

Vince Q.

Danish entry for Best Foreign Language Film Period atmospheric about the aftermath of World War I in Denmark and the fallout posed by the combination of post-war world econonomic depression and injured soldiers (mentally and emotionally) returning home to the women who remained. Starring Victoria Carmen Sonne in a taut and memorable story-driven performances around the exigency of poverty and the desperation it entails, especially in young women who become pregnant with unwanted children. In this film, we experienced a range of detailed characters in a historic setting pitted against insurmountable obstacles. Absolutely peak filmmaking.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/01/25

Full Review

Jon T

This is hard to rate as while it’s very good, it’s also a tough watch. In all my years of movie going l cannot think of anything as unremittingly bleak. I have never seen a better recreation of the harshness of daily life and suffocating social attitudes in nineteenth century Europe. The film vividly explores how people are forced to navigate a world with few comforts for the majority. There is escape and redemption but if feels like a sop to spare the viewer further punishment.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

10/31/25

Full Review

Nicolas J

The Girl With the Needle is impeccably shot and disturbingly bold, it overindulges in bleakness, the director despises his main charaters and soon enough we will too. The emotional and narrative restraint feels replaced by a relentless, artful barrage of despair that ceases to feel purposeful and to feel gratuitous. Cruel misery porn if poorly paced is hard to stomach, no matter how gorgeus.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

08/12/25

Full Review

Tom F

A harrowing look at what people do to cope with an impossible situation.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

07/12/25

Full Review

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Magnus von Horn

Director

Vic Carmen Sonne

Karoline

Trine Dyrholm

Dagmar

Besir Zeciri

Peter

Ava Knox Martin

Erena

Joachim Fjelstrup

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The Girl with the Needle: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

A standout selection from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE is a dark fairy tale about one woman's search for tenderness and morality in a cruel world. Both eerie and exquisite, writer-director Magnus von Horn's latest film tracks young factory worker Karoline as she struggles to survive in post-WWI Copenhagen. When she ends up unemployed, abandoned and pregnant, the charismatic Dagmar takes her in to help run an underground adoption agency for unwanted children. The two women form an unexpected bond, until a sudden revelation changes everything. Based on a chilling true story, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE presents a masterful gothic vision with profound contemporary resonance. Denmark's Best International Feature Film entry to the 97th Academy Awards® also features EFA-nominated performances from Vic Carmen Sonne and Trine Dyrholm, gorgeous cinematography by EO's Michał Dymek, and a spellbinding score by Frederikke Hoffmeier (Puce Mary).

Director: Magnus von Horn
Producer: Malene Blenkov, Mariusz Włodarski
Screenwriter: Magnus von Horn, Line Langebek
Distributor: MUBI
Production Co: Nordisk Film
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Danish
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 6, 2024, Limited
Box Office (Gross USA): $112.2K
Runtime: 2h 3m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

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