User Reviews

The best thing about this documentary is, that it had access to meetings of the health minister and the journalist team, so it provides you with background information. I like also, that the movie is neutral and doesnt want you to indoctrinate for example.

Can't believe the Academy chose 'My Octopus Teacher' over this. Are they ten or something? Anyway... I live in Mexico, and I can see a sad resemblance with the Romanian people. In one scene, a doctor and the young minister talk about how everyone involved in the antiseptic scandal that shocks the country has lost their humanity, and that's something as a Mexican I ask myself all the time. Not only our governments but our societies are rot to the core. 'Colective' is depressing on so many levels, but I applaud the labor of everyone who participated not only in unmasking the authorities but in making this relevant film.

When a tragic 2015 fire in Bucharest's Colectiv nightclub killed 64 and injured 143, with 37 of the victims dying after the fact, primarily from hospital infections, the event launched a sweeping investigation into the Romanian health care system. This revelation, which was brought to light by a team of reporters from a daily sports journal of all things, led to the dissolution of the government and a probing look into the nation's hospital network, exposing system-wide corruption that had been in place long before the catalytic event that spurred this inquiry. "Collective" relates the unfolding of these events through unprecedented access to the journalists and reformers who sought to expose a system where patient care was secondary to the self-serving interests of politically connected administrators and their crooked affiliates. However, while director Alexander Nanau's impressive and authentic documentary is indeed a remarkable piece of investigative journalism, its raw footage approach to the presentation of its material is often dry and talky, failing to stoke the kind of outraged emotional response that a work like this should handily accomplish. It thus plays more like a radio report on film than an engaging cinematic presentation, diluting much of the impact that its findings should generate. Sadly, the victims of this tragedy truly deserve more, not only from the government that let them down, but also from the vehicle through which their story was told.

A government run amok with corruption behind every door. Incredible access given to the filmmakers. It is one of the best documentaries of 2020 and a possible Oscar Nominee in that category.

COLLECTIVE is a powerful, shocking documentary directed by Alexander Nanau exploring the aftermath of the October 2015 Colectiv nightclub fire in Bucharest, Romania which killed 64 people, 26 at the site, 38 in hospitals, injuring 146. With a new election year looming, Journalists and a newly appointed Minister of Health investigate the hospital deaths and expose a corrupt health care system in Romania that has years of unscrupulous political involvement and interference. The film is a very timely exposé on how absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The horrors of Collective are sickeningly specific; the implications, as suggested by its comprehensive indictment of a title, are universal.