Late Shift is a gripping tribute to the everyday reality lived by hospital nurses, directed by Petra Volpe and starring Leonie Benesch.
Ministering Angel
Late Shift
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
CAUTION: Here be spoilers
Heldin, the film’s original German title, means Heroine. Nurse Floria Lind (a wonderful, involving and very physical performance by Leonie Benesch) certainly is a heroine. One of her patients refers to her as an “angel”. On her late shift, which we experience from her viewpoint, she’s harassed because of understaffing and overwork, having to cover wards filled to capacity with vulnerable patients who need time, and harrowed by sudden patient death.
Lind works under pressure and stress throughout her shift – precisely, swiftly, professionally and efficiently – despite being interrupted by numerous phone calls and competing demands and decisions on her limited time. It seems as if her life (public and private) is dysfunctional and unbearable. However, she still finds time to calm a dementia patient by singing to her and talk patiently to all the others – she’s dedicated and she shows compassion and humanity in practice.
Late Shift is a very realistic tribute to nurses by director Petra Volpe. The film is shot in moody evening shades of blue, which contrast with the clinical white and blazing light of the corridors, the only colour being Nurse Lind’s yellow backpack on her way to and from the hospital. Other than that she’s claustrophobically inside it.
Late Shift is full of building tension as the shift wears on and you feel something awful is going to happen, partly due to the atmospheric music soundtrack. You wonder how the nurse we have come to know keeps going: the everyday details of hospital nursing and the patients are really gripping, never boring.
Schadenfreude statistics show that even Switzerland’s presumed-efficient health service is running out of nurses, like Britain’s, and that this is about to be a worldwide problem. Late Shift shows why stressed nurses can be pushed too far and may snap.
Late Shift premiered at the Berlinale and is released on 1 August 2025 in the UK.
