Synopsis
In this gripping drama set in a large Zurich hospital, a nurse finds herself caught in a race against time during a gruelling night shift. Directed by Petra Volpe (The Divine Order), the film stars Leonie Benesch (The Teacher’s Lounge) as Nurse Floria Lind. Together, Volpe and Benesch make it an intense and deeply felt experience.
Once Floria enters the hospital, the film follows her every move. Floria has barely donned her scrubs before she is informed that the hospital is severely understaffed for her shift. There is only one other nurse, Bea, and student nurse, Amelie, to help her with all the twenty plus patients on the ward. The ward’s occupants run the gamut from anxious to entitled; several treat Floria as their personal valet. Relatives want answers. Patients get impatient. The pace is frenetic as she juggles tasks, rushing from one room to another. Floria is an experienced professional but, battling exhaustion and impossible choices, the shift goes from challenging to unmanageable, serving to remind us that the health care crisis extends beyond the UK.
Benesch is totally convincing in her role, with a beautifully controlled performance imbuing every expression with depth and nuance. It is a portrait of the care-taker as a heroine in a failing system and a shot in the arm of pure empathy for the overstretched, undervalued nursing profession, but it is a compelling drama first and foremost.
Language: German, Turkish, French, Albanian with subtitles
Additional Info
Why Watch?
“The wiry and intense physicality that Benesch brought to her role as a newbie schoolteacher in The Teachers’ Lounge finds new depths in her Late Shift performance... Floria is a full-blooded and beautifully etched character and, yes, a heroine.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
“As a nurse, I can only say: Wow! It's incredible how authentically the movie portrays my work. .. It shows very well what makes working on an understaffed ward so stressful: the constant calls, the constant interruptions. You always have to prioritise - but that's impossible - all tasks are equally important and urgent. Leonie Benesch as Floria was outstanding! It just looks like she's been working in nursing for ten years. And how she reacts to stress, this withdrawing into herself, the ignoring of stupid comments, the politeness that you have to wring out of yourself despite all the stress. The subtle traumatization that creeps in through such shifts of horror. At the same time, the director manages to show what could actually be so beautiful about the profession. Really really excellent!” (From a comment on Late Shift made to Unison Magazine)
Location
Cheltenham Film Society, Bacon Theatre, Hatherley Rd, Cheltenham, GL51 6EP
