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Magnus von Horn on How Cannes Contender ‘The Girl With the Needle’ Dances With Darkness: ‘Sometimes It’s Easier to Flirt With the Devil’


The third feature from the Swedish-Polish director is a dark period drama about an underground adoption agency in post-WWI Copenhagen.

Written by von Horn and Line Langebek (“I’ll Come Running”), the film is loosely based on the real-life story of a Danish woman who set up an underground adoption agency to help poor women dealing with unwanted pregnancies. That’s when she meets Dagmar, played by Danish standout Trine Dyrholm (“Queen of Hearts”), a charismatic shopkeeper who helps the destitute mothers find foster homes for their children. After the success of his 2015 debut “The Here After” — which Variety ’s Alissa Simon described as “a calling card for fests on the lookout for new talent” — von Horn was set to return to the French Riviera with his sophomore feature, “ Sweat.” But that film was released in the midst of the pandemic, and though it received a Cannes 2020 label and would go on to have a healthy festival career, the director confesses that he was disappointed to miss out on a glitzy Croisette premiere.

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