From Omeleto.
Two nurses visit patients.
PATIENCE is used with permission from Louis Chan. Learn more at https://louischanfilms.com.
Flora and Kev are nurses in the U.K. Flora has been a nurse for some time but is burning out; Kev is newer to the profession and uncertain about his abilities.
They visit patient after patient in Flora’s old car. At first, Flora and Kev have a standoffish relationship, but they slowly start to bond, with their relationship helping one another through their respective doubts and uncertainties.
Directed by Louis Chan and written by Hayley Calleia and Angus Roughley — who also star as Flora and Kev — this powerful short drama offers a quirky yet moving portrait of an often unheralded yet heroic profession, juxtaposing the perspective of someone at the beginning of their journey with someone weathered and worn down by its travails and traumas. As the pair meet, gingerly navigate their new proximity and forge a bond as they work side by side, they both come to discover (or rediscover) why they were drawn to nursing in the first place.
Rather than guiding viewers from one important turning point to the next, the storytelling is told through fragments of moments that accumulate. These seemingly "throwaway" shards of life — shot with a worn-in, naturalistic eye and a brisk pace in the editing — capture the mundanity of Flora and Kev’s jobs. It can be a grind as they drive from one patient’s home to the next, dealing with many situations ranging from the sadly serious to the almost slapstick. We don’t often see the patients themselves, but rather the interstitial periods between patients, when the nurses decompress or digest what’s just happened. It all builds a sense of just how many people they see, how much they have to factor in when they do their work and how it can all run someone down.
The intelligent writing and excellent performances have a sharp eye and ear for characterization, comparing and contrasting Flora and Kev. Flora is jaded and barely even looks at Kev, who has the tentative uncertainty of a newbie and is cowed and silent by her brisk, intimidating manner. But as they spend time together, they start to become comrades as much as co-workers, as Kev gains savvy from Flora’s mentorship and Flora finds some support and relief that breaks through her isolation — and helps her remember just why she became a nurse to begin with.
Combining the emotional textures, heartaches and unexpected satisfactions of being a nurse with the stoicism and dry humor of its characters, PATIENCE, at heart, is a road movie, with Flora and Kev being transformed through their time together. The road here, though, isn’t a romantic, wide-open one full of possibilities, vistas and exploration. Instead, it’s a mundane, wearying and often difficult one, full of heartbreak, sorrow and invisibility. It’s not an easy one to travel, but it’s made bearable through solidarity, humor and remembering the importance of their work, even when no one else does.
