41/19
Copenhagen 1919: A young factory worker becomes unemployed and pregnant. She meets Dagmar, who runs an underground adoption agency. A strong bond grows, but her world is shattered when she discovers the shocking truth behind her work.. Denmark’s official submission for the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category at the 97th Academy Awards 2025. It’s the final days of the Great War and Caroline is barely making ends meet working in a factory. She believes she is a widow because her husband disappeared during the war (even though Denmark was not actually involved), but she doesn’t get widow’s benefits because he is not listed as dead. A lot happens during the film and I don’t want to give away spoilers, so I won’t go into much detail about the plot except that the marketing highlights something that doesn’t play as big a role in the film as one might expect. While this gets a lot of attention in the second half of the film, for me the real value of the film is the sense of reality surrounding Caroline’s story. When was the last time someone in a movie tried to convince a potential tenant to take an apartment by telling them they could get running water for a full two hours a day (from ten to noon, which may not be a sales pitch, since most people would be working during those hours)? When was the rampant drug use of the era so openly portrayed? Even what Dagmar does was relatively common at the time, although I would venture to guess that if the trend was down at this point and it wasn’t happening as much as it used to, I would actually enjoy the movie more if the marketing was different and Dagmar wasn’t brought up, because it created expectations. Although Dagmar is the main character, the movie is clearly about Karoline and her struggles. On the other hand, it’s hard to say how I would have felt seeing the name Dagmar Overby on the door if I hadn’t known in advance that this real person was used in the movie. (It should be noted that the film is inspired by real-life events, not based on them, so they try to keep some distance from the real Dagmar.) I feel like some audiences will find it hard to sympathize with Karoline, as she sometimes seems to make the right decision just a little too late. At the same time, there’s not as much time or opportunity for ethics when you’re just trying to survive in a world where the odds are stacked against you. On the other hand, while we know that the hope she’s given wouldn’t be in vain in this world, we still understand why I like the look of the film. It’s black and white and the entire city seems to be run down and barely holding together. It reminds us of the lack of interest in welfare or even contempt for the working poor. Have things really changed that much? The time depicted took place over a century ago, but the concept of female body autonomy is once again under attack. Of course, all art is in some way a mirror of the time in which it was created, but it seems easier to see the similarities here.