‘Horror of this story is that it connects with today’s world’: Filmmaker Magnus Von Horn
Director Magnus Von Horn’s The Girl With The Needle has had a successful festival run. Right from its Cannes premiere early this year, the film has won multiple awards and nominations. The film, led by Vic Carmen Sonne, recently entered the Golden Globes 2025 fray under the Best Motion Picture—Non-English Language category. The Danish film, set in the post-World War I period, is loosely based on the life of serial killer Dagmar Overby, who promises a good future for the infants of impoverished families but later kills the children.
The lead actor and director draw an interesting parallel between this horrifying post-war episode and the times we are living in right now. “Dagmar (played by Trine Dyrholm) didn’t just kidnap babies to kill them; women came and gave children to her because they had no other option. In that sense, I think it connects to our world, where in some parts women still have no freedom of choice or can’t make this decision themselves because it’s illegal. The horror of this story is that it connects with today’s world,” says Magnus.
Vic further elaborates, expressing her concern for American women following Trump’s re-election. “I was extremely moved by my TikTok feed after Trump was reelected because it was just so many young women and men who were crying, scared, and fearing for the future and what would potentially happen if they got pregnant and so on. The topic plays the biggest role in this movie.”
Vic goes on to say that the film appealed to her emotionally more than to her intellectual faculties. She says, “When I first heard the script, it went beyond my intellectual interest in the topic. I felt sincere excitement, wanting to be a part of this with Magnus. That’s just the most incredible, grateful thing to have happened as an actor when you get in touch with material and with people like that.”
Magnus gets candid that he didn’t ascribe any intention to The Girl With The Needle at first and that it was a work in progress. He said he only started seeing things with time on what the film could be. “That is what development is. At one moment, we feel some element is strongly present in the story, and we needn’t highlight it because the audience will find such strong connections, and we don’t need to push it.
That’s also very comforting. Our job is rather to trust the story and not think so much about the meanings.” Having said that, he adds that he not only wanted the film to be socially realistic but also wanted it to have an element of creativity in its style and form.
He says, “That helps the audiences to take part in this story that has a lot of horrific elements. We wanted to find a way to make the film in such a way we can accept it or in a way, enjoy it, but not to make it look sweet to be true to the core.”
He further notes how filming in black and white challenged him as a filmmaker to get creative with the visuals. “We wanted to tap into the references and be inspired by films and photography from the time when the film was set. The film has a stronger voice in black and white,” Vic quips, saying that she initially felt it would be boring but later found black and white carried a depth to the storytelling.
She further says, “Two weeks after I expressed to Magnus that it felt boring, he and the DOP Michal showed some old photos of the locations we would shoot in. I was super excited, and the experience turned out to be otherworldly and had a lot of entertainment value.”
On a concluding note, Magnus emphasises that The Girl With The Needle doesn’t just talk about the serial killer and the need for women to exercise autonomy over their bodies; it is also an anti-war film. “Not just Peter (Besir Zaciri), even Karoline fights a war, a different war. In the end, she comes out on the other side, equally damaged as Peter is coming out from his war, and then they can meet again so that they can connect. So in that sense, it is an anti-war film too,” he signs off.