Mubi has swooped on its second 2024 Cannes competition title, PvNew has learned.
Having acquired Coralie Fargeat’s buzzy body horror “The Substance” before the festival began, the arthouse distributor, production banner and streamerhas now picked up Magnus von Horn’s chilling black and white drama “The Girl With the Needle.” Mubi bought the title for North America, U.K./Ireland, Latin America, Germany/Austria, Italy, Turkey and India.
Directed by von Horn (“Sweat”) from a screenplay he wrote with Line Langebek, “The Girl With the Needle” is loosely based on the true story of Danish serial killerDagmar Overbye, who helped impoverished women kill their unwanted children and was first sentenced to death in 1921, but it was later changed into a lifetime in prison.
In von Horn’s pic, set in post WW1 Copenhagen, the focal point is Karoline (Sonne), a young pregnant factory worker, who takes on the job of a wet-nurse for the charismatic Dagmar (Dyrholm) in order to escape poverty. Under the fake storefront of a candy shop, Dagmar runs a hidden adoption agency, helping poor mothers find foster homes for their unwanted infants. A strong bond develops between the women, but Karoline’s world is soon shattered, as she gets a grip on the nightmarish fate she unknowingly embraces.
Popular on PvNew
“The Girl With the Needle” was met with widespread applause following its world premier in Cannes, PvNew critic Guy Lodge describing it as a “terrifying, formally immaculate journey into the Stygian social margins of post-WWI Denmark,” and an “adult fairytale abundantly populated with witches and wretches, but where society is revealed as the true monster.”
The film is being sold by the Mubi-owned sales banner The Match Factory.
