A DANISH film made in black and white in a German Expressionist style, set in the 1920s about a baby killer.
Sounds like a hoot, right?
Magnus von Horn’s The Girl with the Needle may not entice a general audience, but it is a compellingly told and visually arresting drama with horror overtones.
It is very loosely based on the true story of a Danish serial killer whose crimes were uncovered in 1921.
Before we get to that thread, however, von Horn immerses the viewer in the relentlessly tough, and at times horrific, times during and after the Great War.
In unaligned Copenhagen we follow a young, widowed woman struggling desperately to survive.
Karoline works at a factory making military uniforms to pay the rent in her dingy lodgings.
Just when all hope appears lost, the owner of the factory starts to take a romantic interest in Karoline.
But her hopes of a brighter future are difficult to say the least.
I’m being deliberately vague here because The Girl with the Needle is one of those viewing experiences that is enhanced by the less you know about the story.
Suffice to say there are horrifying moments but, ultimately, still the possibility of a better future for one or two characters.
The acting is uniformily good and the locations, interior set design and, in particular, use of lighting are sometimes astounding.
Watched at the cinema.