LATE SHIFT
(director/writer: Petra Biondina Volpe; screenwriter: based on Madeline Calvelage’s autobiographical novel “Our Profession Is Not the Problem, it’s the Circumstances.” cinematographer: Judith Kaufmann; editor: Hansjörg Weissbrich; music: Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch; cast: Leonie Benesch (Floria Lind), Sonja Riesen (Bea Schmid), Alireza Bayram (Jan Sharif), Selma Aldin (Amelie Afshar), Urs Bihler (Herr Leu), Margherita Schoch (Frau Kuhn), Urbain Guiguemdé (Nana), Elisabeth Rolli (Frau Lauber), Jürg Plüss (Herr Severin), Lale Yavas (Frau Monna), Ali Kandras (Nabil Bilgin), Aline Bectschen (Evelyn Buhler); Runtime: 91; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Reto Schaerli, Lukas Hobi; Music Box Films/Zodiac Pictures; 2025-Switzerland/Germany-in German)
“Tense medical workplace thriller set in a modern Swiss hospital.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Swiss filmmaker Petra Biondina Volpe (“Heidi”/”The Divine Order”) is director-writer of this tense medical workplace thriller set in the modern Cantonal Hospital in Switzerland. It follows what happens overnight when the hospital is understaffed. Volpe was inspired by the nurse Madeline Calvelage’s autobiographical novel “Our Profession Is Not the Problem, it’s the Circumstances.”
On the hospital’s late shift, on the surgical ward, is the single mom nurse Floria (Leonie Benesch, German actress), who reports on duty and finds one regular nurse is absent and she will be on duty with only her regular colleague Bea (Sonja Riesen) and the student nurse Amelie (Selma Aldin). The dutiful nurse is upset the hospital is failing its patients by being understaffed.
Things turn frantic when the nurse has 25 patients who are seriously ill in need of her care and an obnoxious wealthy patient (Jürg Plüss) being tested for cancer who paid for a private room which he thinks gives him the right to berate her for being late with his order of tea. We observe how the overworked nurse handles in a compassionate way both the big and small crises that arise overnight.
Though the tense drama brings a healthy message about a world-wide crisis over a shortage in nurses and the lead performance by Benesch is emotionally moving, nevertheless I not only don’t like going to hospitals but don’t usually like films about them unless it’s the soap opera General Hospital.
It played at the Berlin Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 3/25/2025 GRADE: B
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