[press conference for
Das Mädchen mit der Nadel (2024) at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival] What brought me the story was Line [
Line Langebek Knudsen] and Malene [
Malene Blenkov], who had a very strong idea to make a film about something that happened in Denmark a long time ago. And that story was so horrific and provocative to me, especially since I have kids of my own, and I couldn't at first sight know how to tell this story inspired by these crimes. That to me was a huge challenge - how to find a way to tell that story on a human level, as well as on an interesting visual level. And I think the topic matter at the beginning.......I felt I wanted to make a horror movie - I'd always dreamed of making a horror movie - but since I got involved in a long development process and in the end I'm very interested in human beings and the characters. I get involved in developing them enough to switch it away from a clear genre and it becomes something else. I really enjoy that process - that's discovery for me - taking something that feels so horrible and to make something human about it and to look for the humanity in it. What is it about and how to complicate it beyond the borders of how it's packaged in the beginning.
