German Medical Movie Eventually Shifts Gears, and Becomes a Rewarding Watch

“Our profession is not the problem; it’s the circumstances” is an English translation for an unwieldy title of a book by a German author and former nurse, Madeline Calvelage. The autobiographical novel — well, that’s how some folks are pegging the thing — has yet to be published in the States, but a movie based on it has just opened here. In Europe, Petra Volpe’s picture was dubbed “Heroine”; here it will carry the title, “Late Shift.”Did American distributors consider the German title too obvious an indicator of Ms. Volpe’s intent to engender a “discussion surrounding the challenges faced by [health] care professionals?” Overt “Late Shift” most definitely is. By its end the audience is in no doubt that the movie was a 90-minute brief on behalf of the noble cause of nursing. A closing set of intertitles features a prediction by the World Health Organization that there will be a shortage of 13 million nurses by the end of the decade. Point taken.Peg it, then, as a do-gooder picture, but moviegoers will have already intuited as much in the opening minutes upon spotting Floria, played by the actress Leonie Benesch. Anglophiles may recognize Ms. Benesch from the Netflix series, “The Crown,” in which she portrayed the sister of Prince Phillip, Cecilie. Fans of international cinema might remember her as a German translator in Tim Fehlbaum’s “September 4th” (2024), or the well-intentioned teacher in Ilker Çatak’s riveting “The Teachers Lounge” (2023).Ms. Benesch’s specialty is steely determination cut with an abiding, if not readily given, kindness. The actress’s lanky physicality and terse beauty serve her well in the role of a caregiver in a Swiss hospital, a job that requires stamina as well as diplomacy, particularly given the facility’s understaffing. Ms. Calvelage served as an adviser on “Late Shift.” Ms. Volpe films the proceedings with a documentary-like emphasis on the nitty-gritty of a peculiarly eventful tour of duty.A working nurse might reply that every shift is eventful, but Ms. Volpe, who also wrote the screenplay, is a dramatist: her script is peppered with storylines that coalesce in ways that are no less satisfying for being predictable. We don’t learn much about Floria’s life outside of work except that she has a daughter and a grudging ex-husband. Other than a brief phone conversation with both, Floria is otherwise traversing the hallways of the hospital ward, a model of diligence. The pace of the film is frenetic; its effect, jangling.At least that’s the case in its earlier reaches. Once we are introduced to a myriad of characters and their ailments, “Late Shift” comes into focus. There are Floria’s colleagues, the gruff Bea (Sonja Reisen), and a young nurse in training, Amelie (Selma Jamal Aldin). Among the patients are Mr. Leu (Urs Bihler), a very sick man who hasn’t been apprised of his situation, and Frau Kuhn (Margherita Schoch) who is elderly, disoriented, and agitated. The belligerent Herr Severin (Jürg Plüss), with his private room, sense of entitlement, and $40,000.00 watch, would test even the most patient of caregivers. That would, of course, be Floria.The pricey watch figures into one of the most rewarding and funniest scenes in the movie, and Ms. Volpe proves herself adept at shifting the tone of the film to suit the gravity of each patient’s situation. Word on the street, that is to say, amongst nurses, is that “Late Shift” is truer than not, even with an ending that takes a left turn into magic realism. Ms. Benesch is a joy to watch; Ms. Volpe, an ace director. Sometimes do-gooders end up doing the right thing.

German Medical Movie Eventually Shifts Gears, and Becomes a Rewarding Watch

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