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"Late Shift” is a new Swiss-produced ‘hospital thriller’, written and directed by Petra Volpe, starring Leonie Benesch, Lale Yavas, Urs Bihler and Jürg Plüss, releasing in 2025 in theaters:

“…’Floria’ (Benesch) works with passion and professionalism as a nurse in the surgical department of a Swiss hospital. Her every move is perfect, she always has an open ear for her patients even in stressful situations and is immediately on hand - ideally.

“But within the harsh reality of her often unpredictable everyday life, things usually look different. When Floria starts her late shift that day, a colleague is absent from the fully occupied, understaffed ward.

‘But then she makes a fatal mistake and the shift threatens to get completely out of hand, as a nerve-wracking race against time begins…”

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There’s an apt bluntness to the English-language title of Petra Volpe’s new feature. It says what’s necessary and gets the job done, not unlike the nurse at the center of Late Shift. It’s worth noting, though, that the Swiss-German film’s original title, Heldin, though similarly to-the-point, forgoes the just-the-facts modesty and cops to something that fuels the movie no less than the nuts and bolts of 21st century medical care: awed admiration. It means “heroine,” and there’s no question that Floria Lind, the devoted pro played with prodigious fluency by Leonie Benesch in this tense and immersing workplace drama, is as valiant as the most epically challenged protagonist in an action saga.

Volpe (The Divine Order) and her lead actor move through the hospital with a go-go-go energy that’s thoroughly gripping, never forced. Even before her shift begins, Floria’s engaged but terse...

There’s a thin, squiggly tattoo running down the forearm of diligent hospital nurse Floria, always visible past the short sleeves of her royal-blue scrubs, but hard to really get a look at, since her hands are constantly in motion, doggedly busy. Occasionally, as we follow her through the exhausting nighttime rounds that make up “Late Shift,” we catch a glimpse of the ink and wonder what it is, what it means, what it says of this woman’s life outside long hours of caring for strangers. Perhaps even Floria, bleary after hours on her feet, sometimes spots it and is reminded of who she is. Petra Volpe’s pacy, empathetic workplace drama ostensibly shows us only its protagonist’s professional persona, though that sometimes cracks and parts to reveal a fallible human in need of some care herself.

Floria is played by Leonie Benesch, the German actor with the clear,...