“The Girl with the Needle” and meeting with the creators
“The Girl with the Needle” by Magnus von Horn will open the 15th edition of the Kamera Akcja Festival (October 24-27, 2024 in Lodz, Poland). The film premiered in the Main Competition at the Cannes IFF and was included in the official selection of the European Film Awards. Director Magnus von Horn and producer Mariusz Włodarski will meet with FKA audiences.
It is rare that someone is only bad or only good. In difficult times, the worst and best instincts come out of people at the same time
Magnus von Horn
The 15th edition of the Kamera Akcja Festival will open with “The Girl with the Needle” , the third feature-length film by a Polish-Swedish director. The work of Magnus von Horn, framed by the virtuoso black-and-white cinematography of Michal Dymek (“IO”, “Supernova”), boldly mixes elements characteristic of a detective story, film noir, neo-realist parable or even an expressionist thriller reminiscent of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” in places. Taking place just after World War I, the story is based on real events that shook 20th-century Denmark. The needle girl of the title, Karoline, becomes pregnant, loses her job at a factory and is left to fend for herself.
The film impresses with its acting creations – in addition to the lead actress Vic Carmen Sonne, known from “Godland” or “Vacation,” viewers will see Trine Dyrholm, a cinema star known to audiences from such productions as Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Commune” and May el-Toukha’s “Queen of Kier.” More than 200 Poles worked on “The Girl with the Needle” in almost every production division, including editor Agnieszka Glinska (“Jak najdalej stąd”, “IO”), production designer Jagna Dobesz (“The Silent Twins”, “My Wonderful Life”), and costumes were created under the supervision of Malgorzata Fudala (“Belfer III”, “Klangor”). The co-writer of the script for “The Girl with the Needle” is Line Langebek from Denmark. (…) Frederikke Hoffmeier has composed music that sharpens visual impressions, thereby making them seem to come from even deeper recesses of the psyche,” wrote Chase Hutchinson in The Wrap.
For me, The Girl with the Needle is by far the most poignant film of this year’s Cannes, painful and dark, yet formally stunning. Magnus von Horn’s intimate film has more impact than the films of Coppola, Schrader and Sorrentino presented in the main competition this year combined, recalls Przemek Glajzner, director of the Kamera Akcja Festival. This film resonates in me and doesn’t let me forget about it. This historical parable makes us aware of the universal dimension of human morality, adds Malwina Czajka, director of the Kamera Akcja Festival. This is another production by Lava Films, behind which is the director-producer duo Magnus von Horn and Mariusz Włodarski. They previously collaborated on full-length features that also made it to Cannes – “Intruder” and “Sweat.” Together they also produced the shorts “Without Snow” and “Echo.”
The key for us is the fairy tale, which gives us a kind of conventionality, distance. It also allows us to create worlds bordering on reality. We were looking for a setting that has a lot of patterns and colors. And although you can’t see them in black and white, the image is influenced by the structure itself.
MARIUSZ WŁODARSKI
“The Girl with a Needle” is also another production co-financed by the City of Łódź, which once again became a film set for a few days – the Łódzkie Błonia, the halls at Łąkowa 29, Herbst Palace, Julianowski Park, the Factory at Liściasta Street or the atelier at the Film School in Lodz were adopted, while in Zgierz the historic City Pool was used as a film set. On Thursday, October 24, 2024, director Magnus von Horn and producer Mariusz Wlodarski will meet with viewers of the Kamera Akcja Festival after the screening in Monopolis. The film will be released in Polish theaters in 2025 by Gutek Film.
The 15th Kamera Akcja Festival will be held from 24 to 27.10.2024 in Łódź and from 14 to 23.10.2024 online on the Think Film platform. The task is implemented thanks to a grant from the budget of the City of Łódź. Subsidized by funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Cultural Promotion Fund, the Polish Film Institute and the University of Łódź – the festival’s patron. The main partners of the festival are Monopolis and the Film School in Lodz. The Kamera Akcja Festival and the Festiwal Człowiek Mediów w Zagrożeniu form the “Lodz Film Festival” cooperation network. Passes at attractive prices on sale only until October 10, 2024.
