Late Shift

In this nerve-racking hospital drama, an overworked nurse makes a fateful mistake that ups the ante on an already frenetic night. Floria (Leonie Benesch, The Teachers’ Lounge) works in the surgical ward of one of Zurich’s top hospitals. Her job is taxing at the best of times – but tonight, she’s also taking over for a sick colleague and supervising a student nurse. Over the course of eight hours, she’ll have to tend to 26 patients: some terminally ill; some awaiting test results or treatment advice; others simply demanding her attention. As the clock ticks and a momentary error of judgement rebounds with major consequences, will she crumble under the pressure? Based on nurse-turned-author Madeline Calvelage’s account of her own travails in the ward, writer/director Petra Volpe’s timely and galvanising Berlinale premiere takes us behind off-limits doors to provide a glimpse into an understaffed and underfunded world. Centring on an unflappable Benesch – whose pre-shoot hospital internship informed her rendition of health professionals’ virtuosic rigour – this slice-of-life film unfolds almost like a thriller with its ever-escalating stakes, breakneck rhythm and propulsive score by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch (All of Us Strangers), depicting the chaos that can ensue even in the most sterile of environments. “Will twang on the nerves of any past, present or future patient … A shot in the arm of undiluted empathy for the over-stretched, under-valued nursing profession.” – Screen Daily