‘Late Shift’ review: Leonie Benesch excels as a Swiss nurse under pressure

Dir/scr: Petra Volpe. Switzerland/Germany, 2025. 92 minutes

Late Shift is a finely-strung hospital drama from Switzerland starring the exceptional German actor Leonie Benesch which can twang on the nerves of any previous, current or future affected person, and the hearts of those that owe a debt of gratitude to a nurse. Which is to say, all of us. Sometimes schematic, albeit solely within the service of pricking our consciences, Petra Volpe’s tense drama is a shot within the arm of undiluted empathy for the over-stretched, under-valued nursing occupation.

Not only a regular hospital drama however a worldwide cry for assist

Volpe (The Divine Order, Dreamland) is definitely not the primary to open the doorways to the ER, however that is an virtually electrically-sensitive enterprise into territory usually dominated by TV drama or the masculine vitality of movies equivalent to Bringing Out The Useless. The dangers are on a regular basis, however cumulative, as one nurse begins her afternoon/night stint at a Swiss hospital with a workers member down and a trainee to take care of. It’s, after all, life and dying, and what can ever be extra dramatic than that, even when the lives are small and the deaths are quiet? Led by admiration for Benesch in two latest Oscar-nominated movies The Lecturers’ Lounge and September 5, Evening Shift will virtually definitely entice consideration and recognition for her efficiency.

The elephant within the nurses’ room is the gleaming state of the Swiss hospital system, below groaning stress right here however nonetheless a digitally-led world away from well being methods in third world international locations (and even the UK’s crumbling NHS). Stress continues to be stress, although, and human dramas, small and huge, play out in a lot the identical method on any hospital ward. Though the thrust of the movie is dramatic, it’s underlying drive is humane and its enchantment is international.

Drenched in sterile lights and hospital blues, Late Shift begins off with a shot of a laundry line of cleanly-pressed uniforms, setting its stall as a slice of drama which is steady as Nurse Floria arrives within the workers altering room. There’s point out of a break day with a small baby, and a brand new pair of trainers are unboxed, however that’s the final minute of calm for this competent, anxious well being employee. Earlier than she even will get to her station, she has been derailed by an incontinent aged lady. We are able to see Floria is affected person, in a position and compassionate, but in addition below rising ranges of stress as a result of all of these traits. She takes her job severely and if something, is over-conscientious.

A belter of a rating by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch – to not point out the heart-rending end-credits ‘Hope There’s Somebody’ by Ahnoni – is punctuated by the unending beep of machines and the rip of velcro because the day-shift winds down and the stress on Floria ramps up. There’s loads about Late Shift that will probably be very acquainted to adepts of hospital dramas: the allergy klaxon; the mislabelled treatment; the ominous key to a deadly drugs cabinet that’s fairly freely swapped round. The businessman dying of pancreatic most cancers within the luxe non-public affected person room is an entitled asshole. And the scholar nurse is a legal responsibility, together with the alcoholic girl who insists on smoking along with her oxygen canister hooked up.

These aren’t the weather that distinguish Late Shift, however they assist its 92 minutes zip alongside. What’s extra vital, and by some means consoling, is the vulnerability of nurse and affected person, and their unusual, intimate, however by necessity temporary relationship. Dependency and want shuffle up in opposition to time and the dearth of it, in addition to the ending of it. One lady, given a transparent invoice of well being, decides that she is going to depart her job as quickly as she will get out of the hospital and greedily seize one other likelihood at life. One other won’t dwell by means of the night time.

Apparently Benesch spent a while studying with nurses on wards, and her poise right here feels skilled and apt as Floria tries to get by means of one other night with hurt to none – together with herself. Modifying is exact and modulated, constructing and enjoyable, and beginning up once more. As with the garments within the first shot, you see and really feel the cycle – day, night time, life, dying. Viewers will probably be relieved as Floria when the night time shift arrives; however the cycle continues and Late Shift pays tribute to those that by some means make it work. Finish credit level out how endangered Floria’s occupation is, making this not only a regular hospital drama however a worldwide cry for assist.