When Pernille Kurzmann began working at Nykøbing Falster Hospital in Denmark, she was fresh out of nursing school and had trouble befriending the more experienced health care workers around her — until she met Christina Aistrup Hansen. Hansen was the hospital’s top nurse, adored by all. But any time she worked a night shift, drama ensued: Patients who seemed stable would nose-dive and nearly die, and Hansen would heroically bring them back. But not always. Hansen’s patients kept dying — and Kurzmann became suspicious that the beloved nurse was doing something to cause their deaths.
From the producers of The Chestnut Man, The Nurse tells the true story of Hansen and Kurzmann and the evidence that led police to charge Hansen in the deaths of four patients. Tudum spoke to director Kasper Barfoed about the series.
In a hospital in southern Denmark where everyone knows each other and there’s little change in personnel, Pernille Kurzmann settles into her new nursing job. She befriends a charming and charismatic nurse named Christina Aistrup Hansen, who’s held in high esteem by her colleagues and incredible at her job. But as the days go by, Pernille realizes there might be more to Christina than meets the eye — and sets out to uncover the truth.
“So many people suspected something or saw something — and yet it’s the new nurse, the one who’s in her first job who not only senses something is wrong, but who actually does something about it and risks everything,” Barfoed says. “[Making the series] became a lot about trying to be loyal to Pernille and the situation she was in. We wanted the audience to be able to feel how difficult this is. It’s not just pushing a button and then you’re a whistleblower.”
Josephine Park as Christina Aistrup Hansen and Fanny Louise Bernth as Pernille Kurzmann in The Nurse.
Yes. Barfoed was intrigued by how something like this could happen for so long until Hansen was stopped.
“What really most of all interested me [was], ‘How could this take place over such a long time — when, after the whole thing was revealed, a lot of people seemed to have known about it or suspected it?’ ” he says. “That became the key we always went back to. It’s not about just a ‘crazy’ killer — it’s about, ‘How does the system prevent us from speaking up or how does the system protect itself?’ ”
The series takes place in Lolland-Falster, Denmark, where the real events happened. Barfoed says these particular crimes were even harder to uncover and prosecute because they occurred in Denmark.
“There’s a trust [among Danes] more so than in the rest of the world. We’re inclined to trust that the system wants the best for us,” Barfoed says. “We’re vulnerable when things like this happen. Nobody wants to be the one to ruin the good mood.”
Park and Bernth in The Nurse.
To read more about the cast and characters, check out this guide.
It’s available to stream now on Netflix.
You can watch the trailer right here.
Yes. The series is based on the book of the same name by Kristian Corfixen. “The starting point was the book by Corfixen,” Barfoed says. “Nobody knows more about the case than he did.”
