L'affaire collective

This might appear to Western audiences as a great piece of investigative journalism, and it is, but for Romanians it is a terrible thing to see. It's not like we haven't all talked about the abysmal state of the medical system in the country, it's not like we don't know the level of corruption at every level, but to witness it unveiling before our eyes is extremely distressing and painful. What makes it worse is that it presents a young minister of Medicine as a political hero, when we know he actually succeeded nothing of what he set out to do and, off record, he was among the people accusing the whistleblower of being dishonest or mentally unstable.

And to top it all up, we know that from the time the investigation took place (2015) to the time the movie was released (2019) and to now (2021), nothing has changed in any meaningful way. The woman that blew the whistle on the terrible state of the Burn hospital in Bucharest still works there (no one else would hire her) and still has the same bosses, with a new improved manager who accuses her of doctoring the video of maggots crawling over a burn victim's wounds. None of the people responsible or even partially condemned have served any sentences (one was reelected as the mayor of a sector of the capital city Bucharest) as their cases are still stuck in the legal bureaucratic machine. And not much has changed in the expectations of regular people, either. They all know that in order to have any chance for a mediocre treatment they have to bribe the people involved and never expect any kindness or increase in quality other than maybe a prioritization of their case. The system is still there, unchanged, strangling us to death.

For me the documentary was doubly terrifying, once for being a Romanian that might some day be sent into the nightmarish "system" from which few survive unscathed (or alive) and once again for recognizing the failures of the system from the film in my own experience. And I am a corporate man, working for Western countries in large and well known organizations. The feeling that it's not just a budget thing, or a Romanian thing and that it is a global thing resulting from human nature itself it extremely depressing.

Is it a perfect film? No. Sometimes it shows the bias of the investigators, things like their political stance or comments about the face of some guy they investigate for fraud and corruption. But that makes it also feel more raw, more honest. The investigators are not paragons of virtue, they are people like you and me and they are trying their best to do their job. There is a lot lost in translation, too. The HBO English subtitles are sanitized and incomplete, failing to convey the frustration, anger and violence in the people involved. Ridiculously, there was no option for Romanian subtitles, which makes me wonder how exactly did they get the English ones. The pacing is also all over the place and one can understand how difficult it would have been for the film makers to edit material that was kind of one sided and it is pretty obvious that people behave slightly unnatural, knowing they are in front of cameras.

Bottom line: it is a raw painful experience to watch this film. There is no joy in it, no closure, just people trying to fight the system by revealing it to the world in all of its ugliness. And they lose. That's the ugly truth.

Collective, the 2019 documentary film signed by Alexander Nanau addresses a serious topic. In the fire in the Bucharest nightclub 'Colectiv' which took place on October 30, 2015, 27 young people died. In the months that followed, another 37 of the wounded with severe burns died in hospitals in Romania and abroad. The deaths of many of them could have been avoided, as they were caused by the lack of capacity, hygiene and proper treatment conditions in hospitals, and by delays in transporting the wounded abroad. The scandal and the popular protests led to the fall of the ruling Social Democratic government and its replacement with a government made up mostly of technocrats, which led Romania for a year, until the parliamentary elections in December 2016. The filming team started from the press conferences after the fire and focused on two main issues: the investigation and the revelations of the journalists from 'Gazeta Sporturilor' led by Catalin Tolontan which brought to the public's attention serious details of incompetence and corruption in the hospitals system and with the providers of medical materials, and the work of the Minister of Health in the technocratic government and his team, who during their time in power tried to take a series of measures to eradicate corruption at all levels of the medical system. Politics being what it is, the 2016 elections brought the Social Democrats back to power.

The investigative reporting techniques are used professionally, the editing is alert and explains well the main moments of a tragedy that changed the Romanian political landscape for a while. The role of the combative media is excellently emphasized. I assume that for some of the foreign spectators some details will remain unclear. The fact that the investigation team belongs to a sports newspaper says something about the situation of the Romanian press. The technocratic minister of health in the film, Vlad Voiculescu, has since entered politics and is running today for the position of mayor of Bucharest. Reporters and politicians in the film are permanently watching television stations that not only inform but especially comment with visible political overtones. Can documentaries such as "collective" be an alternative to independent investigative journalism? Accompanying the teams of journalists and advisers to the ministers for 14 months, Alexander Nanau and his colleagues help us to get to know the main protagonists, journalists and politicians. In most cases, they manage to make the cameras unbiased and invisible. The voices of the victims are represented by the grieving parents and the young Tedy Ursuleanu, seriously injured in the fire, who will bear the sequels of her wounds for all her life.

I am not surprised by the international resonance of the film, because the problems of medical systems, including lack of equipment and capacity, as well as deeper such as corruption and political interests are increasingly evident in many countries, including the crisis caused by the COVID pandemic. 19. Starting from the Romanian realities, "collective" manages to tell a story with universal validity. The story being well told, the impact is remarkable.

Excellent documentary. Unfortunately the medical system didn't change since then. God help us all...

... and be overwhelmed by a machination of maggots. A jaw dropping, eye opening and almost unbelievable documentary focusing on the endemic and systemic corruption discovered by journalists after sixty four people died as a result of a nightclub fire in Bucharest 2015. Plumbing the depths of depravity, and continuing to reach deeper as each minute ticks by, you will feel for the people of Romania and the betrayal perpetrated against them by their elected officials and civil servants.

An electrifying and groundbreaking documentary, Collective is a chilling reminder of the underhanded dealings of modern politics. Shot in a rigorously observational manner, Collective covers an event that took Eastern Europe by storm and led to massive big pharma and government reform.

On October 30, 2015, a deadly fire in Colectiv, a popular nightclub in Bucharest, Romania killed 64 and injured 146. Of the 64 killed, 38 died in the hospitals. Upon closer inspection, it was discovered they were in close contact with some of the most resistant hospital bacteria on the continent, which festered in their uncleansed wounds. In the first part of the film, Catalin Tolontan's journalistic crusade is detailed, as he embarks upon a journey to uncover the negligence, corruption and political machinations that plagues the Romanian health system as a whole. Vlad Voiculescu is introduced as the new minister of health, and he looks to take Romania in a new direction for health and safety but faces massive backlash. Watch Collective to find out how this crisis is solved.

A widely-known Romanian journalist at the Gazeta Sporturilor, Catalin Tolontan, together with Vlad Vioculescu, ex-minister of health and patients rights activist, are featured in Collective. Tolontan colleagues Mirela Neag and Razvan Lutac are captured in the newsroom, printing papers and delivering fiery questions at press conferences. I especially enjoyed their portion of the film, possibly due to my interest in journalism, but also because of Tolontan's unique approach to tackling this case - calculated vehemence. Even Voiculescu's segment is intriguing, albeit a little more morose and harder to follow. Honestly, you can't help but feel bad for Voiculescu, the one upstanding politician who cares for people more than for the money in his pocket, especially in the tense election scenes. Tedy Ursuleanu, a burn victim, is also featured in this film. Her story is not illustrated in great detail, but featuring her is, to me, a massively positive step for Nanau to take. It adds a whole new level of 'wow, this is real' to Collective.

The cinematography in this film is absolutely stunning; the camera team uses dimly lit, low contrast scenes to drive home the intensity of the incident and harshly lit closeups in telling the story of the people that Collective follows. The lack of ambient noise filtration in press conferences helps the viewer really jump into the story. Besides the plot, this has got to be my favorite part of the entire documentary.

Collective promotes freedom of speech, government transparency, and valuing lives over profit, which are all positive morals. There are political elements in this film as well as rather graphic scenes depicting burn victims, that you should be aware of. Also, there is some bad language and the whole plot is unsuitable for younger audiences. Nanau successfully calls viewers to action to speak out against corruption.

I give Collective 4.5 stars out of 5 and recommend it for ages 14 to 18, plus adults. Reviewed by Eshaan M., KIDS FIRST