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Heldin

Late Shift
Berlinale Special Gala 2025
© Zodiac Pictures 2025
Floria, a nurse, works with great dedication and professionalism on the surgical ward of a Swiss hospital. She never puts a foot wrong, always has an open ear for her patients even in the most stressful of situations, and is immediately at hand in an emergency – or, at least, that is the ideal version of events. But in the harsh daily reality of the often unpredictable situation on the ward, things can look a little different. When Floria arrives for the late shift on one such day, a nurse is absent from the fully occupied and already chronically understaffed ward. Despite the hectic pace, Floria manages to look after a seriously ill mother and an old man urgently awaiting a diagnosis with just as much care and expertise as she does when attending to a private patient with all his special demands. But then she makes a disastrous mistake and the shift threatens to run completely off the rails. A nerve-racking race against time begins.
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by Petra Volpe (Director, Screenplay)
with Leonie Benesch, Sonja Riesen, Urs Bihler, Margherita Schoch, Jürg Plüss, Alireza Bayram, Ridvan Murati, Urbain Guiguemdé Switzerland / Germany 2025 Swiss German, German 92' Colour World premiere Rating R 6

With

  • Leonie Benesch (Floria)
  • Sonja Riesen (Bea)
  • Urs Bihler (Herr Leu)
  • Margherita Schoch (Frau Kuhn)
  • Jürg Plüss (Herr Severin)
  • Alireza Bayram (Jan)
  • Ridvan Murati (Herr Osmani)
  • Urbain Guiguemdé (Herr Nana)

Crew

Director Petra Volpe
Screenplay Petra Volpe
Cinematography Judith Kaufmann
Editing Hansjörg Weissbrich
Music Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch
Sound Design Gina Keller
Production Design Beatrice Schultz
Casting Corinna Glaus
Producers Reto Schaerli, Lukas Hobi
Co-Producer Bastie Griese

Produced by

Zodiac Pictures Ltd

MMC Zodiac GmbH

Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen

SRG SSR

World Sales

TrustNordisk

Photos

Press Conference

Petra Volpe

© Salvatore Vinci

The screenwriter and director studied at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. In 2013, her debut cinema film Dreamland was nominated for four Swiss Film Awards. In 2017, she caused an international stir with The Divine Order which sold over 360,000 tickets in Swiss cinemas, was distributed in 30 countries and was Switzerland’s official entry for the Oscars. She has written screenplays for Heidi, the series Labyrinth of Peace and the cinema film Golden Years, which was the most successful Swiss film of 2022. She also works in the USA and is currently developing her first English-language film. She lives in Berlin and New York.

Filmography (selection)

2006 Schönes Wochenende (Beautiful Weekend); TV movie 2009 Frühling im Herbst (Autumn Spring Fever); TV movie 2013 Traumland (Dreamland) 2015 Heidi 2017 Die göttliche Ordnung (The Divine Order) 2020 Frieden (Labyrinth of Peace); TV series, 6 episodes 2021 Neumatt (New Heights); TV series, idea 2022 Die goldenen Jahre (Golden Years) 2025 Heldin (Late Shift)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025