Ellas vagt

The Shift

Berlinale Series 2022

Birth is one of the few experiences that is shared by everyone. Helping to bring new life into the world is a job that is far from mundane for head midwife Ella and her colleagues in the maternity ward of a Danish hospital. The close-knit team goes about their work with conviction and fine ideals. But all too often, the pressure and the enormous mental and physical strain of the work pushes them to their personal limits.
Lone Scherfig returns to the Berlinale with this, her first series. The filmmaker presented The Birthday Trip (Panorama) at the festival in 1991, On Our Own (Generation) in 1998 and Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (Special Gala) in 2003. In 2001, the festival’s Jury Prize was among those she received for Italian for Beginners; in 2010, her Oscar-nominated drama An Education screened in the Berlinale Special and in 2019, The Kindness of Strangers was the festival opener. In Ellas vagt, she now explores this special if stressful place where life begins and where feelings of shame, guilt and insecurity meet a world of love, trust, triumph and unfathomable happiness.

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by Lone Scherfig, Søren Balle, Ole Christian Madsen
with Sofie Gråbøl, Pål Sverre Hagen, Marijana Jankovic, Sara Hjort Ditlevsen, Afshin Firouzi, Mattias Nordkvist, Charlotte Munck, Mette Horn, Nicolai Jørgensen, Patrick A. Hansen Denmark 2022 Danish 83’ World premiere

With

Sofie Gråbøl (Ella)
Pål Sverre Hagen (Jerry)
Marijana Jankovic (Louise)
Sara Hjort Ditlevsen (Tine)
Afshin Firouzi (Milad)
Mattias Nordkvist (Jacob)
Charlotte Munck (Marianne)
Mette Horn (Trille)
Nicolai Jørgensen (Frederik)
Patrick A. Hansen (Vilhelm)

Crew

Creator	Lone Scherfig
Showrunner	Lone Scherfig
Directors	Søren Balle, Ole Christian Madsen, Lone Scherfig
Screenplay	Lone Scherfig, Kim Fupz Aakeson, Lasse Kyed Rasmussen, Jonas Wagner, Mette Sø, Lars K. Andersen
Producer	Malene Blenkov
Executive Producer	Mette Heiberg, Katrine Vogelsang, Lone Scherfig
Broadcaster	TV2
In Cooperation with	Det Danske Filminstitut (PSP), Nordisk Film and TV Fond