Scandinavian Film Fest 2025 Review - Second Victims
Zinnini Elkington’s debut feature film questions the psychological strain faced by medical professionals, its rich narrative and flawless leading performances earning it a spot in the official selections of this year’s Scandinavian Film Festival and Göteborg Film Festival. Second Victims traces the workday of experienced neurologist Alexandra (Özlem Saglanmak) in which the demanding complexities of her profession cause her to misevaluate a patient’s seemingly routine symptoms. Elkington provides insight into the rippling repercussions of the incident, primarily exploring how character attitudes affect her protagonist’s psychological state and working capabilities.
The Danish film takes its name and inspiration from real-life phenomenon Second Victims Syndrome; the emotional toll experienced by healthcare workers when they adversely affect patients. Elkington takes a pragmatic approach to portraying the Second Victim Syndrome, grounding her narrative in realism to communicate the emotional weight of the guilt-induced stress.
Shot on location at Herlev Hospital in Denmark, the film’s ninety-minute run time durates Alexandra’s workday, refracting the chaotic hospital atmosphere through her perspective. In anchoring the film to a singular point of view, Elkington intensifies the surrounding chaos of coworkers and patients, effectively drawing the audience into her protagonist’s emotional complexities. The film rapidly changes its tone through a masterful combination of cinematic techniques and supporting characters to develop the narrative; rifts between coworkers evoke anger, confrontations from patient’s relatives elicit guilt, fleeting moments of compassion offer relief. The ensemble of characters is weaved into different elements of Alexandra’s workday to provide a stark emotional contrast and further dramatise the character’s emotional range.
The narrative’s intensities and development are completely dependent on actress Özlem Saglanmak’s stellar performance of Alexandra. Her portrayal is raw and commanding, demanding the audience’s attention with her juggling of anger, anxiety, despair and relief. The actress demonstrates a remarkable control over her physicality, never overstating emotion, but allowing them to emerge with natural force. Supporting actress Trine Dyrholm (also appearing in the Scandinavian Film Festival’s Beginnings) counters Saglanmak’s melodramatic portrayal by approaching her character Camilla, the mother of the patient whose symptoms Alexandra misreads, with a more quiet and restrained portrayal. Dyrholm’s understated performance elicits a greater comparison in her character’s attitudes; her transformation from concerned into a grieving, outraged parent is rendered with precision, deepening the audience’s anxiety and raising the emotional intensity of the film.
The final scene counters the emotional intensity which Elkington so brilliantly builds throughout her film, instead offering a quiet reverie and closure to Alexandra’s workday. While this sense of resolution neatly ties the narrative together, it unravels the urgency and emotional weight of what preceded it. The central question of accountability is unfittingly resolved, as the abrupt tonal shift and change in location offer a soft but misleading depiction of the Second Victim Syndrome.
Second Victims makes for an impressive directorial debut, offering an often-overlooked insight into the emotional stakes of healthcare workers. The film’s realism captivates its audience and poignantly explores themes of death and guilt with great authenticity.
Second Victims is screening as part of the 2025 Scandinavian Film Festival. For tickets and more info, click here.