There’s something achingly heartwrenching yet horrifying about The Girl With The Needle. The Danish film, directed by Magnus von Horn from a screenplay co-written with Line Langebek, opens with the face of a woman changing — stretching, morphing — into multiple others. It’s an ominous beginning that puts us on edge and prepares us for what’s to come. In some ways, the film is a horror; in others, it’s a true-crime story. At the heart of the movie are flawed, desperate women who are simply seeking to control the world around them when they know how limited their options truly are.

The Girl With The Needle, directed by Magnus von Horn, follows Karoline, a young factory worker in post-wwi Copenhagen, as she navigates abandonment and pregnancy. She encounters Dagmar, who operates a clandestine adoption agency within a candy store, offering aid to impoverished mothers seeking foster homes for their children.