*“The Girl with the Needle is a subtly cruel piece of cinema, a film that toys with the viewer's emotions much like Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves. What makes this sadistic tension even more striking is the film's almost naïve sincerity — the kind of naked, unfiltered directorial intent you might associate with early Xavier Dolan. The photography and the soudtrack are stunning, with each frame carefully composed, offering moments of quiet beauty even as the story becomes increasingly suffocating.

*“The Girl with the Needle is a subtly cruel piece of cinema, a film that toys with the viewer's emotions much like Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves. What makes this sadistic tension even more striking is the film's almost naïve sincerity — the kind of naked, unfiltered directorial intent you might associate with early Xavier Dolan. The photography and the soudtrack are stunning, with each frame carefully composed, offering moments of quiet beauty even as the story becomes increasingly suffocating.

Just after the end of the Great War, the young and expecting “Karoline” (Vic Carmen Sonne) finds herself alone and with little prospects after confusion around whether her soldier husband is alive or dead reigns and she is swiftly shunned by the family of her lover, the father of her unborn child. Through the grapevine, she learns of “Dagmar” (Trine Dyrholm) who runs a popular sweet shop that doubles up as an adoption agency where people in her predicament may try to find suitable homes for their children. It’s not so much that “Karoline” wants to go down this path, but she is faced with a stark reality that perhaps only her new friend can alleviate. This isn’t just a transaction, though, and gradually the two women begin to bond - to the extent that soon she is also assisting with this illegal enterprise, but is all as benevolent as it might seem? In many ways it has something of the “Vera Drake” (2004) to it, in that it features a very strong leading role for a woman set at a time when the whole process of conception and/or childbirth outside of marriage was seriously frowned upon, and thereby necessitating sometimes quite drastic action from the would-be mothers - only this rapidly becomes something much more sinister. The timeframe also works disturbingly well to illustrate just how straightforward it was following the chaos and destruction of the War to engage in the trafficking of everything from drugs to people - the black market knew few bounds. This is loosely based on a real life story, which only adds to the shock factor as does the setting in a Copenhagen that is anything but the stuff of the “Little Mermaid” and the two leading performances are gritty, poignant and compelling to watch as the story plumbs the frequently odious depths of human nature, addiction and venality. This is not an easy watch, at times you might find yourself looking out of the window or checking your watch, but it’s that authenticity, coupled with an eerily effective score from Frederikke Hoffmeier that creates an atmosphere that wouldn’t look out of place in a “Jack the Ripper” story. By the end the audience is faced with quite a quandary. Sympathy or loathing, empathy or disgust? Maybe all of these, maybe none? Certainly not for the squeamish but definitely a thought-provoking and stylish film to watch.