''Collective'' ( ro, Colectiv, also known as ''Collective: Unravelling a Scandal'') is a 2019
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...
n
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
directed, written, produced and edited by
Alexander Nanau
Alexander Nanau (born 18 May 1979) is an Oscar-nominated German/Romanian film director, film producer and screenwriter.
Biography
Alexander Nanau was born on 18 May 1979, in Bucharest, Romania. He has lived in Germany since 1990.
Nanau stud ...
. The film centers on the
2016 public health scandal following the
Colectiv nightclub fire
The Colectiv nightclub fire was a deadly fire in Bucharest, Romania, on 30 October 2015, which killed 64 people (26 on site, 38 in hospitals) and injured 146. The fire, which was the deadliest fire in the country's history, occurred during a free ...
. The film follows dual stories of investigative journalists at the Romanian newspaper
Gazeta Sporturilor
''Gazeta Sporturilor'' ( en, The Sports Gazette) is a daily Romanian newspaper, and the country's largest and most read sports-related publication. It is owned by Ringier Sportal S.R.L—a joint venture of Ringier Romania S.R.L. and the Bulgarian ...
uncovering public healthcare corruption and maladministration, and the government's response to the crisis at the
Ministry of Health Ministry of Health may refer to:
Note: Italics indicate now-defunct ministries.
* Ministry of Health (Argentina)
* Ministry of Health (Armenia)
* Australia:
** Ministry of Health (New South Wales)
* Ministry of Health (The Bahamas)
* Ministry of ...
.
The film had its world premiere at the
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...
on 4 September 2019, and was released in Romania on 28 February 2020, and on 20 November 2020 in other countries, including the UK and USA. It received acclaim from critics, as well as many accolades, including from the
European Film Awards
The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which the mo ...
and the
National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics (NSFC) is an American film critic organization. The organization is known for its highbrow tastes, and its annual awards are one of the most prestigious film critics awards in the United States. In January 2014, ...
.
It was nominated at the
93rd Academy Awards
The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. The ceremony was held on April 25, 202 ...
for the
Best Documentary Feature
Best or The Best may refer to:
People
* Best (surname), people with the surname Best
* Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer
Companies and organizations
* Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain
* Best Lock Corporation, ...
and
Best International Feature Film
The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to ...
categories, becoming the first Romanian film to be nominated for an Academy Award.
Synopsis
On October 30, 2015 in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...
, Romania, metal band
Goodbye to Gravity
Goodbye to Gravity was a Romanian metalcore band from Bucharest, active from 2011 until 2015, when four of the band's five members died during their concert at a night club in Bucharest, due to a burning firework that started a large fire.
His ...
is performing a concert in a club called
Colectiv;
pyrotechnics
Pyrotechnics is the science and craft of creating such things as fireworks, safety matches, oxygen candles, Pyrotechnic fastener, explosive bolts and other fasteners, parts of automotive airbags, as well as gas-pressure blasting in mining, quarry ...
cause
a fire to break out and quickly engulf the club, immediately killing 27 people and injuring 180. Over the following months 37 more victims die, partially due to the lack of proper healthcare at the public hospitals.
Journalists begin investigating the mismanagement of healthcare by public hospitals after sources inform them that the disinfectants used at public hospitals are diluted. Testing confirms this, and the journalists subsequently publish a hard-hitting story about the supplier,
Hexi Pharma, and how it falsified the documentation for the supplied disinfectants. The story also reveals that the government failed to properly verify the supplier and its products. The Minister of Health, , orders an investigation. When
Cătălin Tolontan, a journalist from the ''
Gazette
A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper.
In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspaper ...
'', goes on
TV to discuss the investigation, the Minister of Health dismisses the journalist's insistence for facts and evidence and states that governmental testing showed that the disinfectant solutions were 95 percent effective.
The journalists push further and find a source that confirms that the intelligence service has known for years that bacterial infections were killing people but did nothing. The Gazette publishes the story, and mass protests continue over the corruption and lack of proper healthcare protection. Consequently, the Minister of Health resigns and a criminal investigation begins against the CEO of Hexi Pharma, . The government announces at a press conference that they have tested the Hexi Pharma products and found the solutions were all diluted. Tolontan asks about the 95 percent effectiveness previously claimed by the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry responds by refusing to comment on their previous claim. Shortly after, Condrea is killed in a car crash.
Later, ''The Gazette'' obtains a video of a patient in a hospital with maggots festering in their wound. Their source, a frustrated doctor, explains that patients deaths resulting from diluted disinfectants or inadequate blood transfusion services continues unabated even after the
Social Democratic governmental ousting in late 2015.
Vlad Voiculescu, the new Minister of Health, meets with the doctor and she details how hospital management avoided the problems and did nothing while patients were dying. She also discusses how the hospitals treat patients inhumanely, as well as how bribes are arranged between hospital managers and doctors.
Voiculescu concludes that there isn't a single unit throughout the public hospitals that isn't affected by profound administrative corruption. He learns that he cannot fire the corrupt hospital managers currently in place, many of whom bribed their way into their positions, so he demands that extremely strict regulations for any new hospital managers are introduced. He begins to realize that the whole system is rotten and that eradicating corruption would entail "firing everyone". When he withdraws funding from a
lung transplant
Lung transplantation, or pulmonary transplantation, is a surgical procedure in which one or both lungs are replaced by lungs from a donor. Donor lungs can be retrieved from a living or deceased donor. A living donor can only donate one lung lobe ...
unit, deeming it dangerous, he becomes the target of a press campaign lead by
Mayor of Bucharest
The Mayor of Bucharest ( ro, Primarul General al Municipiului București), sometimes known as the General Mayor, is the head of the Bucharest City Hall in Bucharest, Romania, which is responsible for citywide affairs, such as the water system, th ...
Gabriela Firea
Gabriela Firea (born Gabriela Vrânceanu, 13 July 1972) is a Romanian journalist and politician who served as mayor of Bucharest, the capital of Romania, between 2016 and 2020.
At the June 2016 local election, Firea was elected the first femal ...
, who accuse him of wasting taxpayer money on transporting patients to Vienna, even though the unit in Bucharest is supposedly fully accredited to perform the same operation - a professor privately admits to Voiculescu that the unit should not have been accredited and it was done under political pressure, but begs Voiculescu not to speak about this in public in order to avoid a scandal that could ruin the reputation of the institute.
Election day arrives and the Social Democrats
sweep the election, obtaining the most votes. At ''The Gazette'', Tolontan's colleague reveals she had an off-the-record conversation with someone who warns the journalists about their and their families' safety. Later on, the public hospital appoints a manager who is unqualified and legally unable to manage a hospital.
Release
The film premiered out of competition at the
76th Venice Film Festival
The 76th annual Venice Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival was held from 28 August to 7 September 2019. Film director Lucrecia Martel was appointed as the President of the Jury. ''The Truth (2019 film), The Truth'', directed by Hir ...
on 4 September 2019.
It was also screened at the
2019 Toronto International Film Festival
The 44th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 September 2019. The opening gala was the documentary film '' Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band'', directed by Daniel Roher, and the festival closed with a ...
and in the Spotlight section of the
2020 Sundance Film Festival
The 2020 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 23 to February 2, 2020. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 4, 2019. The opening night film was '' Miss Americana'' directed by Lana Wilson and produced by Morga ...
. It was released in Romania on 28 February 2020, by Bad Unicorn. On 20 November 2020, it was released in the U.S. by
Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor. It is a subsidiary of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's 2929 Entertainment
2929 Entertainment, LLC. is an American integrated media and entertainment company co-founded by billionaire entrepreneur ...
and
Participant and in the U.K. by
Dogwoof
Dogwoof is a film-distribution company based in the United Kingdom.
History Dogwoof Pictures
Dogwoof was founded in 2003 by Andy Whittaker, and originally concentrated on foreign films, including such titles as ''Don't Move'', '' Fateless'', ...
.
Reception
Critical response
On review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
, ''Collective'' holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: "''Collective'' presents a darkly effective overview of the cycle of political corruption and public cynicism that takes hold when government abrogates its responsibility to the people."
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
assigned the film a
weighted average
The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
score of 95 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Writing for the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'',
Justin Chang
Justin Choigee Chang (born January 3, 1983) is an American film critic and columnist for the ''Los Angeles Times''. He previously worked for '' Variety''.
Early life
Justin Chang graduated from the University of Southern California in 2004. Cha ...
called the film "a gripping, despairing exposé of institutional injustice".
Jay Weissberg of ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called it "a documentary for our times, deserving of widespread exposure".
Manohla Dargis
Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Career
Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times' ...
of ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote that the film "sketches out an honest, affecting, somewhat old-fashioned utopian example of what it takes to make the world better, or at least a little less awful."
Accolades
At the
33rd European Film Awards, the film won Best European Documentary, becoming the first ever Romanian film to achieve that feat.
The film also won
Best Documentary at the
41st Boston Society of Film Critics Awards.
Starting off the new year on a strong foot, it went on to win the prestigious
Best Foreign Language Film Award from the
National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics (NSFC) is an American film critic organization. The organization is known for its highbrow tastes, and its annual awards are one of the most prestigious film critics awards in the United States. In January 2014, ...
on 9 January 2021.
On 26 January 2021, the
National Board of Review
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...
selected Collective as one of the top 5 foreign language films of the year.
On 9 March 2021, the film was nominated for the
74th BAFTA Film Awards for
Best Documentary.
Furthermore, on 15 March 2021, the film was nominated by the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...
for the
93rd Academy Awards
The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. The ceremony was held on April 25, 202 ...
for two categories:
Best Documentary Feature
Best or The Best may refer to:
People
* Best (surname), people with the surname Best
* Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer
Companies and organizations
* Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain
* Best Lock Corporation, ...
and
Best International Feature Film
The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to ...
. It is only the second film to be nominated for both awards following North Macedonia's ''
Honeyland
''Honeyland'' ( mk, Медена земја, transliterated: ''Medena zemja'') is a 2019 Macedonian documentary film that was directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov. It portrays the life of Hatidže Muratova, a loner beekeeper of w ...
'' the previous year.
It is the first Romanian film to be nominated for an Academy Award, let alone in two categories. It also won the prestigious
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
.
"Collective,"
from PeabodyAwards.com, 6/23/2021
See also
* Romanian New Wave
The Romanian New Wave ( ro, Noul val românesc) is a genre of realist and often minimalist films made in Romania since the mid-aughts, starting with two award-winning shorts by two Romanian directors, namely Cristi Puiu's ''Cigarettes and Coffee' ...
* List of Romanian submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film
*
*
* European Film Award for Best Documentary
The European Film Award for Best Documentary or Prix Arte has been awarded annually since 1989 by the European Film Academy. Special Mentions were presented alongside the winner of the award until 1993, since 1999 a set of nominees are presented ...
References
External links
''Collective''
– official trailer
*
*
*
{{Alexander Nanau
Romanian documentary films
Documentary films about health care
Documentary films about journalism
Films about corruption
2019 films
Investigative journalism
2019 documentary films
Healthcare in Romania
News media in Romania
Peabody Award-winning broadcasts