Skip to main content
The Girl With the Needle film image; one woman stares directly into camera while all others bow their heads

The Girl With the Needle

Pigen med nålen

Special Presentations

This event has passed

With her husband missing in action, Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne), a young seamstress, struggles to survive in post-WWI Copenhagen. An affair with the owner of the clothing factory she works at brings temporary relief from her poverty, but leads to still worse complications. Left with few other options, she turns to a charismatic candy shop owner, Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm), who offers special services to women in need. But as it turns out, the woman’s placid façade hides deeper layers of disquiet.

Inspired by the real-life story of one of Denmark’s most infamous serial killers, The Girl with the Needle renders this true-crime story as an expressionist fairytale, with a nightmarish atmosphere reminiscent of Tod Browning and Carl Theodor Dreyer. Featuring lustrous black-and-white cinematography, an ominous soundscape, and bolstered by fearless performances by Sonne and Dryholm, it is a chilling, unforgettable look at the horrors that people are capable of—as well as the social conditions that make them possible.

Director
Cast

Vic Carmen Sonne, Trine Dyrholm, Besir Zeciri, Avo Knox Martin, Joachim Fjelstrup

Credits
Country of Origin

Denmark/Poland/Sweden

Year

2024

Language

In Danish with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
115 min
Drama Human Rights & Social Justice
Nordisk Film Production

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Credits

Producer

Malene Blenkov, Mariusz Włodarski

Screenwriter

Magnus von Horn, Line Langebek

Cinematography

Michał Dymek

Editor

Agnieszka Glińska

Production Design

Jagna Dobesz

Magnus von Horn headshot; The Girl with The Needle director

Magnus von Horn

Magnus von Horn was born in 1983 in Göteborg, Sweden but has lived for almost 20 years in Poland. A graduate of the Polish National Film School in Lodz where he is also currently a teacher. With his short films, he established himself internationally as a promising director presenting at festivals such as Sundance and Locarno. Finding it inspiring to work in different languages his feature film debut, The Here After, was in Swedish and premiered at Director’s Fortnight in Cannes 2015. His second feature film, Sweat, was in Polish and part of the Cannes official selection in 2020. His third film, The Girl With the Needle, is a Nordisk Film Production and is in Danish.

Filmography: The Here After (2015); Sweat (2020)

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Mongrels

Dir. Jerome Yoo
111 min

Like Riceboy Sleeps, Jerome Yoo's debut feature is a beguiling, introspective film looking back on the Korean immigrant experience in the Canadian hinterland, here split across three chapters, each with a distinct visual aesthetic.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Doctor Zhivago

Dir. David Lean
197 min

This Valentine Day, wrap yourself in David Lean's epic, all-star love story, set against the tumult of the Russian Revolution. With Maurice Jarre's haunting score, Omar Sharif as the soulful doctor/poet, and Julie Christie as his soul-mate Lara.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Oscar® Shorts 2025: Documentary

164 min

Four of this year's short documentary nominees are from the USA, and three of them deal with violence: a prisoner on death row, Parkland, and a police shooting incident in Chicago, 2018. Happily the other nominees focus on classical music.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Paying For It

Dir. Sook-Yin Lee
85 min

Talk about a hall of mirrors! Sook-Yin Lee wittily adapts the graphic novel of the same name by her ex-boyfriend, Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, about the end of their relationship Brown's subsequent decision to start paying for sex.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise)

Dir. Marcel Carné
190 min

The crowning glory of classical French cinema, this sumptuous melodrama brings to life the early 19th century Boulevard du Crime in Paris, where popular audiences for mime shows and carnival rub shoulders with wealthy patrons of classical theatre.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Brief Encounter

Dir. David Lean
87 min

Considered one of the greatest British films ever made, this evergreen love story plays like In the Mood for Love, 1945 edition, with Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson instead of Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, and Rachmaninoff instead of Nat King Cole.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema