‘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 outstanding German actor Leonie Benesch which is able to 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. Often 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 actually not the primary to open the doorways to the ER, however that is an nearly electrically-sensitive enterprise into territory usually dominated by TV drama or the masculine vitality of movies comparable to Bringing Out The Lifeless. The dangers are on a regular basis, however cumulative, as one nurse begins her afternoon/night stint at a Swiss hospital with a employees member down and a trainee to take care of. It’s, after all, life and loss of life, 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 nearly actually appeal to consideration and recognition for her efficiency.

The elephant within the nurses’ room is the gleaming state of the Swiss hospital system, below groaning strain right here however nonetheless a digitally-led world away from well being programs in third world international locations (and even the UK’s crumbling NHS). Strain remains to be strain, although, and human dramas, small and enormous, 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 world.

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 employees altering room. There’s point out of a time without work with a small youngster, 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 will see Floria is affected person, in a position and compassionate, but additionally below rising ranges of stress on account of all of these traits. She takes her job critically 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 endless beep of machines and the rip of velcro because the day-shift winds down and the strain on Floria ramps up. There’s loads about Late Shift that shall be very acquainted to adepts of hospital dramas: the allergy klaxon; the mislabelled treatment; the ominous key to a deadly drugs cabinet that’s moderately 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 together with her oxygen canister connected.

These aren’t the weather that distinguish Late Shift, however they assist its 92 minutes zip alongside. What’s extra necessary, and in some way consoling, is the vulnerability of nurse and affected person, and their unusual, intimate, however by necessity temporary relationship. Dependency and wish shuffle up in opposition to time and the shortage 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 probability at life. One other won’t reside by the evening.

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 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, evening, life, loss of life. Viewers shall be relieved as Floria when the evening shift arrives; however the cycle continues and Late Shift pays tribute to those that in some way 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.