Spring Film Festival - “Late Shift”
- Matt Palmer
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
The second film festival selection I checked out for this slate of reviews is the foreign film “Late Shift,” which is an absolute must see!
Dedicated nurse Floria navigates the relentless pace of her hospital’s understaffed surgical ward with humanity and warmth. As her overnight shift intensifies, she is pushed to the brink in a race against time.
The film “Late Shift” is an intense, immersive and essential drama that highlights the grueling realities of nursing, anchored by an exceptional performance from Leonie Benesch. This film is also almost like a love letter to nurses, highlighting the vital, yet often thankless work they do, making this an important, topical film.
“Late Shift” does an extraordinary job capturing the genuine atmosphere of a hospital, featuring a “day in the life” style that can sometimes feel like a documentary rather than an intense drama. Throughout the film, you also get to feel the stress-inducing pace, which effectively conveys the anxiety of working under intense pressure.
This film does an incredible job portraying the intense realism of depicting an understaffed hospital on screen. One thing I really appreciated is that the tension didn’t come from exaggerated “doctor show” melodrama, but from realistic, everyday professional pressures. The film effectively makes the audience feel the same stress and anxiety as the main character, Floria.
Another compelling aspect of the film that is also truly great is how “Late Shift” shows the depiction of caregiving/nursing as a “soldier in the trenches” kind of scenario, showing us the sheer volume of tasks - from comforting patients to managing highly
complex medical needs - within a single shift.
While “Late Shift” shows us all the highly tense moments Floria goes through during her nursing shift, there’s a scene in the film that can really move you. In a rather rare calm moment, Floria calms an elderly patient suffering from dementia by singing a German lullaby, which the patient shakily joins in, marking a rather deeply tender moment in the chaos. There’s also a fairly tense subplot involving a wealthy patient with pancreatic cancer who demands special attention, which has a rather surprising ending.
“Late Shift” has received highly positive critical acclaim for its intense, realistic, and empathetic portrayal of an overworked nurse in an understaffed Swiss hospital. It’s a harrowing and urgent documentary-style character study, with critics praising the immersive camerawork and stellar lead performance.
MPA: Not Rated (runtime 92 minutes)
Official submission of Switzerland for the 'Best International Feature Film' category of the 98th Academy Awards in 2026.
To prepare for the role, Leonie Benesch went through an internship at the cantonal hospital in Liestal, Switzerland, to watch the nurses of the abdominal surgery service and rehearse the technical gestures, in order to look like a professional nurse during shooting.
Writer/director Petra Biondina Volpe was inspired by the book "Unser Beruf ist nicht das Problem, es sind die Umstände" ("Our job isn't the problem, it's the context" in English), by Madeline Calvelage, who wrote about her experiences as a young nurse and consulted on the script.
It is a tradition in some countries for nurses to open the window soon after a patient dies to help the spirit/ soul leave.
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