Denmark’s Oscar Entry, “The Girl with the Needle,” Based on a True Crime Story “`
Many Danes are familiar with the horrifying true story behind the film, The Girl with the Needle.
Between 1915 and 1920, Dagmar Overbye, a Copenhagen woman, accepted unwanted babies for payment, falsely promising them good homes. Instead, she murdered them. Overbye was apprehended and executed in 1921.
Screenwriter Line Langebek and director Magnus von Horn aimed to avoid simply depicting a serial killer. Their film, now available in the U.S. on MUBI and Denmark’s Oscar entry, explores the societal context.
“Her actions reflect the society of the time,” von Horn explains. “She didn’t kidnap; women entrusted her with their babies. We sought to understand that world.”
Overbye, played by Trine Dyrholm, appears around the film’s midpoint, which is shot in striking black and white.
The narrative centers on Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne), a post-WWI factory worker impregnated by her wealthy employer, then abandoned after his mother’s disapproval. Overbye encounters Karoline at a bathhouse attempting a self-induced abortion and offers an alternative: adoption. After Karoline gives birth, she entrusts her baby to Overbye. However, instead of separating, Karoline becomes attached to this seemingly benevolent woman, forming a twisted co-dependency, believing her child is thriving in a better home.
Overbye was suspected of killing up to 26 infants and convicted of killing 8. Her motive was financial gain from desperate mothers.
A fairy tale based in fact
Karoline is based on the woman who led police to Overbye. Von Horn and Langebek took creative liberties, extending Karoline’s time with Overbye. In the film, Karoline returns to Dagmar and becomes entangled in her life, even becoming a wet nurse. Van Horn describes the film as a “fairy tale.”
“She questions if she’s becoming Dagmar,” von Horn says. “How does an ordinary person become almost a doppelganger, an apprentice who takes over?”
Von Horn and Langeback conducted extensive research, including the 122-page Overbye court transcript and images of the stove where the infants’ remains were found. These haunting photographs informed the production design. They also explored the societal context, consulting historian Pia Fris Laneth.
“Her method of disposing of bodies—babies discarded in the river or trash—shows societal apathy,” von Horn notes.
Following the war, Denmark’s numbered identification system made disappearances more difficult, Langeback adds.
“It became part of the narrative,” she says.
Disturbingly human
The film’s Overbye is older than the real woman (Dyrholm is in her 50s, Overbye was in her 30s). The real Overbye was also a more disorganized compulsive liar than Dyrholm’s portrayal. However, as shown, she suffered miscarriages and had a daughter. The Girl with the Needle depicts this daughter, Erena (Avo Knox Martin), with Karoline becoming a surrogate mother figure.
The screenplay highlights parallels between the impoverished Karoline and Overbye, making Dagmar disturbingly human.
“There’s a version where Dagmar is just a monster, but that’s the familiar serial killer trope,” Langeback explains.
However, focusing solely on Overbye felt “morally indefensible” to von Horn.
“Dagmar’s psychopathy is undeniable,” he says. “Making her the main character would create distance.”
The Girl with the Needle ends optimistically for both Karoline and Overbye.
“It wouldn’t make sense unless Karoline uses the oppression and violence to create something positive,” von Horn says. “She fights to change her life and eventually helps others.”