By John Corrado

Swedish director Magnus von Horn’s highly disturbing but artfully crafted new film The Girl with the Needle is a period piece set in Copenhagen in the direct aftermath of World War I.

The timeline is set early on when a town crier shouts out news of the armistice, right after we see poor factory worker Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne) having sex in an alleyway, as people casually walk by. This sexual act is what sets the plot in motion.

Karoline is a seamstress who works in a factory stitching uniforms, and she loses her apartment in the opening scene to higher paying tenants. When she becomes pregnant by factory owner Jørgen (Joachim Fjelstrup) – the man with her in the alleyway – she has few resources to care for a child.

This leads her to Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm), the owner of a local candy shop who promises to give the baby to a respectable family, through her black market adoption agency. Dagmar ensures her that surrendering her child is for the best; the baby will go to doctors or lawyers who will be able to provide a better life. In exchange, Karoline offers her services as a wet nurse, including tending to Dagmar’s seven-year-old daughter Erena (Ava Knox Martin).

There is something deeply sinister lurking at the edges of The Girl with the Needle right from the start, not least of which due to its grounding in historical fact. The screenplay, co-written by von Horn and Line Langebek Knudsen, explores incredibly bleak subject matter, inspired by actual events from the time period. The quietly gripping acting further anchors it; Sonne delivers an emotionally and physically gruelling performance as Karoline, while Dyrholm is chillingly good as Dagmar due to how unassuming her portrayal is (the ways that she subtly infantilizes daughter Erena are also disturbing).

There is an oppressive quality to every aspect of von Horn’s film. What’s instantly striking is the grimy, industrialized look of this world, with chimneys spewing thick smoke and ashen cobblestone streets. It’s all captured through the stark and haunting German expressionist imagery of Michal Dymek’s black-and-white, 4:3 cinematography, while Frederikke Hoffmeier’s chilling score adds to the unnerving soundscape on top of it.

The film teeters on the edge of being full-on gothic horror (a visit to the circus freak show, the opening images of screaming faces morphing and becoming disfigured that serve as a sort of foreshadowing). But it’s somehow even more bone-chilling and unsettling due to its eery grounding in reality. It works mainly as a nightmarish portrait of pure evil masquerading as compassion.

Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)

The Girl with the Needle opens exclusively in theatres in limited release on December 6th, including TIFF Lightbox in Toronto. It’s being distributed in Canada by MUBI.