Switzerland has recently joined the world in celebration – by hosting the women’s Euros, where the English team famously triumphed last month.
But now a Swiss-German movie highlights a different, depressing kind of global connection, where dedicated health professionals and their patients are united by the frustrations of systems that are falling apart at the seams.
Late Shift, which has just opened in UK cinemas, is a powerful reminder that the NHS is not the only health service in crisis. But it also offers a beautiful salute to nurses, who give everything for those in their care, despite an appalling lack of staffing, resources and time. The German title of the film, Heldin, means “heroine”.
Written and directed by Petra Volpe, it stars the fantastic German actress Leonie Benesch as Floria, a nurse who works in a surgical ward of a Swiss hospital. The plot takes place during a single late shift, following Floria the entire time as she navigates far too many patients and problems for any one person to deal with.
The film opens with a deeply ironic shot, of dozens of healthcare uniforms moving along an assembly line. It’s all very efficient and impressive. The trouble is, that there isn’t anyone to put them on.
When she arrives for her shift, Floria is upbeat and professional, ready for what’s ahead of her. But a colleague is sick and hasn’t been replaced, leaving only two nurses to care for 25 patients, with a student giving limited support.
Right at the start of the shift, a patient refuses to get off his phone and get ready for surgery. The delay immediately leaves Floria playing catch up through the long hours ahead, as she tries to complete two rounds of her patients, while responding to additional demands – for extra painkillers, for information from doctors (who are noticeably absent), to take on new patients, or to quickly move people between the operating rooms and back to the ward.
Some patients just want some companionship, which Floria offers, despite her lack of time. Family members also come with their own demands, as does one private patient, whose insurance gives him an infuriating sense of entitlement.
Aside from a bit of artistic licence (essentially designed to offer emotional relief), the film feels like an authentic slice of nursing life, with Floria constantly in action performing one task or procedure after another. She’s conscientious, kind, professional, just horribly overloaded. It’s exhausting just to watch her; only real nurses and other health professionals would know what it actually feels like to endure such demands in real life, often with life or death at stake.
The result is gripping, infuriating, but also extremely touching, for example when Floria offers moments of empathy and brightness for patients at death’s door, or when the two nurses – who spend most of the shift dealing with their own sections – are finally able to support one another.
To ensure the authenticity of her script and production, the director accompanied nursing staff in various Swiss hospitals for several days, and engaged a nursing specialist as a consultant. Leonie Benesch prepared for her role by completing an internship at a hospital, where she shadowed nurses in the abdominal surgery department and rehearsed the various physical movements of the tasks she’d have to seem to perform in front of the camera. The research pays off, in a brilliantly committed and persuasive performance.
A caption at the end of the film tells us that, by 2030, Switzerland will be short of 30,000 nurses, with 36% of trained nurses quitting within just four years. UNISON estimates that the current shortfall in the UK is 40,000. These are shared problems. And, given that nurses in Germany and Switzerland have gone to cinemas together to watch Late Shift, the film’s UK distributors are hoping for a similar response here.
UNISON members would of course see things in the film that don’t chime with their experience, whether the hospital interior and equipment, or the exact way the nurses go about their duties. But they’re also certain to feel familiarity and solidarity with the courageous Floria during her long and difficult day.
Q&A with director Petra Volpe (pictured above)
You describe Late Shift as a declaration of love to nursing staff. What was the trigger for this project and what was particularly important to you during the research and filming?
The topic of care has occupied me for many years. I lived with a nurse for a long time and witnessed every day what she experienced at work – the good and the bad – which, above all, had to do with the conditions, which became increasingly challenging.
In my opinion, this profession should be one of the most highly regarded and respected in our society. Carers look after us when we are sick and old, when we are at our most vulnerable. They carry an enormous responsibility every day. That‘s why I wanted to make a movie that celebrates this profession.
Late Shift lets the audience experience Floria‘s everyday working life, particularly how she’s racing against time. How did the idea for this type of production come about?
I have been searching for an approach to this topic for a long time. During my research, I came across the book Our Profession Is Not the Problem – It’s the Circumstances by a German nurse, Madeline Calvelage. In it, she vividly describes an ordinary late shift, and the book captivated me completely. Within just five minutes, my heart was racing. It read as thrilling as a suspense novel, even though it portrays the routine of everyday nursing care.
This inspired me to create a movie that tells the story of a single shift from a nurse‘s perspective, designed to engage the audience on a visceral, physical level. Developing the characters and crafting a structure that builds toward the most compelling dramatic escalation was a long and thoughtful process.
We deliberately chose to maintain this consistent, immersive perspective throughout the film. A great deal of care went into figuring out how to tell the story in a way that makes the viewer feel as though they are the nurse, experiencing the intensity firsthand.
Why was the German actress Leonie Benesch the right person for the role of Floria?
I was searching for an actress who has a natural presence and could learn to effortlessly perform care work as if she had been mastering her skills for over a decade. The moment Leonie stepped into the frame and delivered her first line as Floria, I knew she was the one. It was a truly magical moment.
The supporting characters, including the many patients and their family members, are from diverse backgrounds. What was important to you when casting those roles?
The diversity comes from the fact that we live in a diverse society and a hospital ward reflects this. Illness and death is something that can affect everyone; it is something that makes us all the same in the end.
We carried out a very elaborate casting process. It was important to me that most of the actors were not immediately recognisable from other films or series, which is why some of the actors are even non-professionals or have mostly acted on stage. Some of the nurses in the film and the resuscitation team are real nurses and doctors.
The future of nursing staff is bleak. Your film impressively shows what the term ‘staff shortage’ means in concrete terms for nurses and patients. How do you hope audiences will react?
I hope that the movie is entertaining on the one hand, because you are taken on an exciting rollercoaster ride. On the other hand, it also shows what it means to work in this profession.
For many people, a nurse is there at the beginning of their life, but also at the end. They are often the first and last people who touch us. We usually meet them when our own life, or the life of a loved one, is in a crisis situation. I would like to remind viewers how grateful we can all be that a professional, empathetic person is by our side at this moment. We should be aware that their fight for better working conditions should be our fight as well – we are all potential patients.
Images and Q&A interview courtesy of Vertigo Releasing
