By: Justin Nordell
The 33rd annual Philadelphia Film Festival runs October 17-27, 2024 and features over 100 films this year. Most films play twice and our own Justin Nordell will be sharing “Philly Film Fest Fast Reviews” to give you a taste of the festival so you can pick and choose which films to make for the second screenings!
One of my favorite films of 2020 was Magnus van Horn’s Sweat, a dipped in pink Polish character study of a social media fitness guru trying to rediscover her humanity while maintaining her brand. The film presented a character that I typically wouldn’t want to spend five minutes with and delivered a universally relatable film about imposter syndrome that I will continue to recommend to anyone who will listen (it’s streaming on Mubi). So when I saw that director van Horn was back with another female-focused character study playing the 33rd Philadelphia Film Festival, The Girl with the Needle became a must-see for me.
Karolyn’s (Vic Carmen Sonne, Holiday) is a factory worker in Copenhagen whose husband never came home from WWI, leaving her alone, destitute, and out of options. She believes the factory owner Jørgen (Joachim Fjelstrup, Hygge!) when he says he will take care of and wed her… that is until she gets pregnant. Now cast aside by the only chance she had at elevating her status in life, Karolyn begins to seek desperate measures. That’s when she meets Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm, Queen of Hearts), the proprietor of a candy shop who secretly runs an underground adoption agency. Karolyn joins Dagmar’s operation as a wet nurse, caring for the babies passing through her care, but as her own child’s birth looms, things become and more apparent that Dagmar has more to her enterprise than candy and adoptions.
Going from 2010’s Poland to 1910’s Denmark, vibrant pink and neon to harsh black and white, Magnus von Horn has made back-to-back near masterpieces of feminist cinema with Sweat and now The Girl With The Needle. Devastating watches in their own unique ways, these are character studies about women that dare to challenge viewers’ preconceived notions. I already can’t wait to see what Magnus von Horn will write and direct next, but until then, do yourself a favor and make time for The Girl With The Needle.
Grade: A-
Catch it at PFF33: Wednesday, October 23rd at 6:15pm at the PFS East
Tickets Available Here: https://prod5.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/ticketsearchcriteria.aspx?evtinfo=429844
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