Late Shift
When Floria Lind (Leonie Benesch, "The Teacher's Lounge," "September 5") arrives at the Swiss hospital where she works, she'll learn that due to understaffing, she and Bea Schmid (Sonja Riesen) will be responsible for twenty-five patients that night with impossible-to-reach doctors and only a student nurse, Amelie (Selma Jamal Aldin), to help out on the "Late Shift."
Laura's Review: A
Switzerland's shortlisted submission for the 2026 International Oscar from writer/director Petra Volpe ("The Divine Order") is both a love letter to the nursing profession and a sobering look at how the stresses of an often thankless career are driving people away from it in unprecedented numbers (end credits advise that globally, nursing will be understaffed by 13 million by 2030). Using long takes, Volpe paces her film like a tense thriller, the extraordinary Leonie Benesch never stops multi-tasking at breakneck speed yet always has time for a kind word, gentle touch or sympathetic smile, impatience and frustration largely hidden from her patients.
Frau Lind, as she introduces herself, has barely been apprised of her patient roster when she's called to help a male nurse going off shift (Alireza Bayram) with changing the diaper of dementia patient Frau Kuhn (Margherita Schoch), a reality shock into the far from glamorous nature of the job. She is already familiar with Herr Leu (Urs Bihler) and the colon cancer diagnosis yet to be given him when she finds him pacing the hallway, assuring him that she will ensure Dr. Strobel (Nicole Bachmann) talks to him as soon as she is out of the OR. With Herr Osmani (Ridvan Murati) arriving late for the OR and needing to be prepped, Frau Lauber (Elisabeth Roll) begins to give Floria grief about not receiving her antibiotics on her specific schedule. The nurse assures sweet Herr Nana (Urbain Guiguemde), a lonely man from Burkina Faso, that she is his friend as she checks in on him. Herr Severin (Jürg Plüss), a man in a private room expecting five star service, asks for pain killers and as Frau Lind hurries down the hall towards her next task, she'll take a call from a woman looking for her mother's reading glasses left behind three days ago and when she cannot be convinced to call back in the morning, Floria writes down her number. She'll encourage the daughter (Doris Schefer) keeping vigil with her dying dad (Heinz Wyssling) to take a break, something she desperately needs herself, and just as she's hitting a breaking point she's informed that an unhoused alcoholic with possible pneumonia is being admitted to her ward. Then she sees Frau Frei (Dominique Lendi) out on a balcony smoking a cigarette alongside her oxygen tank. And Amelie, who was supposed to help Frau Kuhn eat, didn't make it on time, leaving Floria to clean her up and deal with a phone call from the woman's daughter which does nothing but distress her. And three young men waiting in the hallway keep asking when someone will check in on their mother.
Volpe makes us feel the accumulating stress of too many people and things demanding attention, briefly stopping for peaceful moments, like Floria
singing to Frau Kuhn to calm her down, a helpful young woman in the next bed offering to turn on music. There is quiet conversation with cancer patient Mrs. Morina (Lale Yavas) when her family finally leaves her room and the time Floria takes when Mr. Leu wishes to share a picture of his beloved dog. But there is also the escalating stress of confronting Mr. Leu's doctor in the stairwell on her way out, compounded by finding that the man has lost patience and left, leaving her a note calling her an angel. Or discovering Mr. Song (Jeremia Chung) having an allergic reaction to the wrong pain killer she mistakenly administered, alleviated somewhat by the quick response and reassurance from ward doctor Leonie (Anna-Katharina Müller). Most devastating to Floria is being called into Frau Bilgin's (Eva Fredholm) room by one of her son's exclaiming that she's stopped breathing, accusations raining down on the nurse who had never made it to her room on her rounds. She tenderly arrange the woman's body, wrapping a colorful scarf around her neck.
Volpe has inserted two instances where judgement fails empathy, the first a two-way issue between Floria and Herr Severin, who barks that she's taken over an hour to deliver his peppermint tea just after she's dealt with death. She grabs the watch he's been timing her with and throws it out the window only to learn it was worth $40K. The situation is resolved in a surprising way with yet another patient Floria has prejudged, scenes unexpected, moving and funny. Even more powerful is Volpe's ending, a real knockout.
Volpe and her production team equipped an abandoned hospital for use in the film. Everything is brightly lit and pristine, cinematographer Judith Kaufmann ("The Teachers’ Lounge") following Benesch around like her wheeled workstation, settling in close to observe patient care. Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch's simple piano and string score adds to the film's tension with its urgent, rhythmic beat. The large ensemble cast covers all walks of life, befitting a surgical ward, each adding a contribution to support Benesch's thoroughly invested performance. "Late Shift" just may be the gold standard for movies about the nursing profession.
Robin's Review: A-
Floria Lind (Leonie Benesch) is one of only two nurses working the night shift at a busy metropolitan Swiss hospital. She stalwartly deals with all of the demands of the stressful job. Sometimes, though, it can all prove too much working the “Late Shift.”
A warning to the viewer: this is a realistic and believable depiction of the trials, toils and tribulations of being a nurse in a major hospital that does not have enough nurses. This not just a story, it is a deliberate and necessary attempt to shed light upon the healthcare system and the needs of the patients – and the nursing staff.
First off, director-writer Petra Biondine Volpe is preaching to the choir, for me, with her gripping, 92-minute look into the day in the professional life of a highly-trained and capable nurse. Being short-handed in the medical profession is not something new and became even more prominent because of COVID-19.
Floria begins her work day like any other. Today, though, is going to be more stressful than usual when she finds out that another nurse on duty called in sick. It is up to Floria and her fellow nurse, Bea (Sonia Riesen), to cover the entire floor on a very busy night.
The camera tirelessly follows Floria through her daily routines. She must deal with demanding patients – “I pay for private insurance” – as well as truly needy patients, like a young African man in for an operation alone and scared, or an older gent who wants to go home because he is worried about his dog. She also must cope with patients dying and their grieving families.
There is not one, single minute during “Late Shift” that does not have something going on for Floria and her patients. She must also deal with uncooperative doctors insulated from the needs of their patients. It is a non-stop “you are there” story of the life of a hospital nurse.
Director Volpe does not let up with the energy level as we follow Floria through her rounds and all of the demands made on her. Leonie Benesch is terrific as the small-in-stature-but-big-on-ability nurse whose strength, will and dedication are foremost in her career.
Anyone who has spent any time in a hospital and appreciates everything our wonderful nurses do will agree they are under-loved and definitely underpaid. In my experience, Floria personifies the nursing profession. They truly are our guardian angels.
Music Box Films opens "Late Shift" in select theaters on 3/20/26, expanding in subsequent weeks. Click here for theaters and play dates. It is being featured at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts in their Global Cinema Now series on 3/7/26.
