Petra Volpe & Leonie Benesch Shine A Spotlight On Nurses On The Frontline In ‘Late Shift’: “A Lot Of Nurses Are Burnt Out” – Contenders International

Petra Volpe had long been thinking about the role of nurses and the integral role they play in society but it wasn’t until the aftermath of the pandemic that the Swiss writer-director felt compelled to make them the subject of her latest movie, Late Shift.

“It’s such an intense job and people take it for granted that there are these women who do this for us,” said Volpe at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International. “And then Covid came and everybody was clapping [for the nurses]. I was in New York at the time, and it was so clear the importance of nurses and what was going on in these wards and how traumatic it was and also, how quickly it was forgotten afterwards. The world just moved on but the problems remain the same. A lot of nurses are burnt out and traumatized with PTSD.”

She continued: “The statistics that you can read in the newspapers are quite clear: there are not enough nurses in the U.S. It’s like, very intentionally, hospitals are understaffed to make more profit. This just kept brewing and simmering in me and I felt it was a really important topic to look at from a filmmaker’s perspective, also a feminist perspective and a political perspective.”

Late Shift, which is Switzerland’s submission for the International Oscar category this year, centers on Floria (Leonie Benesch), a nurse who navigates the relentless pace on a surgical ward with unwavering dedication, infusing humanity and warmth into her patient care even though the shift is understaffed. As the day intensifies, it transforms into a gripping race against time.

Benesche was coming off the back of her critically acclaimed performance in The Teacher’s Lounge when she had a Zoom audition with Volpe. The writer-director admitted that after that meeting, she didn’t initially send Benesche the script for fear she wouldn’t want to play another professional role.

“I thought she doesn’t want to play another professional in this occasion,” said Volpe. “She’s probably getting a hundred billion offers like that.”

But Benesche quickly boarded the project and was eager to take on what she describes as a very physical role. “For us, it was an action movie,” she said. “It’s very athletic.”

Benesche spent days in a hospital shadowing nurses and what struck her most during that process was the common thread all nurses had: “They all really wanted to take care of people, she said. “They talked about how they always enjoyed providing care, or taking care of other people and they always found it easy and fulfilling. That was people’s motivation. Very few people are in it for the money.”

Music Box Films is releasing Late Shift in the U.S.

Check back Monday for the panel video.