Director: Petra Volpe

Stars: Leonie Benesch, Uhrs Bohler, Jürg Plüss, Selma Jamal Aldin

Following her cracking turn as the stressed-out educator in school drama 'The Teacher's Lounge', Leonie Benesch is equally as impressive as an extremely taxed nurse at a short-staffed Swiss hospital in this gripping thriller. She is Floria, a kindly but put-upon nurse checking in for her twelve-hour night shift at a Zurich hospital and alarmed to find out that a colleague has failed to show up, leaving her in charge of some twenty-six patients with only an inexperienced and absent-minded trainee nurse Amelie (Aldin) to help. Floria is brisk and curt, necessarily so, but she is attentive too, chasing doctors up to attend to waiting patients, most notably an elderly cancer patient Mr Leu (Biller) waiting for his diagnosis, bringing sweets in for visiting children, even singing a soothing lullaby to an old lady with dementia. But Floria’s patience is severely tested by a lack of support from her equally overworked staff and the needling of a private patient (Plüss) who obnoxiously rails against the poor service and insults the one person who is attending to him. Could this be what finally pushes Floria over the edge? Director Volpe maintains a thrillingly propulsive pace, while the chaotic rhythms and barely managed confusion of hospital life are conveyed via jittery handheld camerawork and artfully frantic editing. Cinematographer Judith Kaufmann’s blue-hued lighting suggests a clinical atmosphere but warmth too. Benesch, who spent a month as a nurse intern to prepare for the part, demonstrates again that she is one of the most vital actors around. We initially learn very little about Floria’s troubled personal life, but the character is afforded at least one moment of grace - the German title of the picture is Heldin (Heroine) which, while fitting, feels too on-the-nose for something so self-evident. Volpe’s film also works as a timely and humane examination of the crisis in nursing staffing, underlined by explanatory closing cards at the conclusion.

David Willoughby

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