Copenhagen 1919 – A young working woman finds herself unemployed and pregnant. She meets Dagmar, who runs an underground adoption agency. A strong connection grows, but her world is shattered when she stumbles upon the shocking truth behind her work. Denmark’s official submission for the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category of the 97th Academy Awards in 2025. It’s the final days of the Great War and Karoline is barely making ends meet by working in a factory. She believes herself to be a widow because her husband disappeared during the war (even though Denmark wasn’t actually involved), but she doesn’t receive widow’s benefits because he’s not listed as dead. A lot happens during the film and I don’t want to get into spoilers so I won’t go into any depth about the plot except that the marketing is emphasizing something that isn’t as big a part of the film as you’d expect. While that 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 around Karoline’s story. When was the last time someone in a film tried to convince a prospective tenant to rent an apartment by telling them they could have running water for two whole hours a day (from ten to noon, which was perhaps not a huge selling point since most people would be working during those hours)? When was the rampant drug use of the time depicted so candidly? Even what Dagmar is doing was relatively common back in the day, although I would venture to guess that the trend was downward at this point and it wasn’t happening as much as it once was. I might actually have enjoyed the film more if the marketing was different and Dagmar wasn’t mentioned, because it raised expectations. While Dagmar is an important character, the film is clearly about Karoline and her struggles. On the other hand, it’s hard to say how I would have felt about seeing Dagmar Overby’s name on a door if I hadn’t known beforehand that this real-life person was used in the film. (It should be noted that the film is inspired by real-life events rather than based on them, so they’re trying to keep a certain distance from the real Dagmar.) I feel like a portion of the audience will find it hard to sympathize with Karoline, as at times it seems like she makes the right decision too late. At the same time, there’s not 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, even though we know that the hope she’s given would be for nothing in this world, we still understand why she gives in. I like the look of the film. It’s black and white and the entire town looks decrepit and barely holding on. It reminds us of the lack of interest in, or even disregard for, the welfare of the working poor. Have things really changed that much? Of course, all art is in some ways a mirror of the time in which it was made, but it seems easier to see the similarities here.