This is the Oscar nominee for Best International movie, which is from Denmark. To say that it is on the dark side is to ill prepare the viewer for what is to come. This is a relentlessly grim movie, one that serves as a reminder that women on the fringe of the economic ladder have been marginalized for generations, around the world. I did not know this, but read in a review that it is based on the true story of a Danish serial killer named Dagmar Overbye, which only becomes apparent later. What is apparent is that the movie becomes almost numbing in its brutality.
The main character is Karolina, who is being evicted from her apartment for non-payment of rent when the movie opens. Her husband is a soldier in WWI and she has not heard from him, and what she makes at her job as a seamstress. Things go from bad to worse when her husband returns severely disfigured as well as psychologically damaged from the war, and she is abandoned by her wealthy lover when she becomes pregnant and his mother doesn't approve. She meets up with a woman who offers to help her find a home for her baby. She never quite turns the corner to a better life, but her journey is unexpected.
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