Collective

Previously: I think I'm gonna see all the nominated documentaries this year. But I think I'll see one a week.

This week: Maybe not one a week.

Collective is a unique film. It's the first Romanian film to be nominated for any Oscar, and it's been nominated for both Best International Feature AND Best Documentary. So I might just see one more nominated documentary tomorrow. But let's check out this one first:

Alexander Nanau's film chronicles the political fallout of the Collective night club fire in Bucharest. It went up in flames on October 30, 2015, after a pyrotechnic display went awry. The fire killed 64 people; 27 initially and 37 due to bacterial infections in the hospital. Sports Gazette reporter Catalin Tolontan set out to find out why people kept dying. And he found it. 

It turns out surgeons were using diluted disinfectants. A lot of them were supplied by the firm, Hexi Pharma. This leads Tolontan and his fellow reporters to a tangled web of corrupt incompetence in the Romanian government. It only gets more complicated when Dan Condrea, head of Hexi Pharma, dies in a suspicious car crash. Meanwhile, the outrage over the fire leads to protests. Will it be enough to change the system?

No, not really. The Ruling Party remained in power and they hired a Quack as a Public Hospital Manager.

The story is a great political thriller. The depths of corrupt incompetence Tolontan and his reporters uncover is shocking. A patient is seen in a whistleblower's video infested with maggots. The Government happily accepted Hexi Pharma's falsified reports. There's also the circumstances of Condrea's fatal crash. We find out later that the government is so corrupt that the only way to uncorrupt it is to fire everyone. It's enough to make one's head spin. 

A subplot follows Collective survivor Tedy Ursuleanu as she gets a prosthetic hand and poses for an art exhibit. Her appearance in the plot threw me off at first, but it made sense later. Her subplot is about finding hope after a traumatic event. It's ultimately well-done. We also see footage of the start of the fire; unsurprisingly, it's the film's most disturbing scene.

Another subplot follows Vlad Voiculescu, the newly promoted (at the time) Health Minister and friend to the investigation. We see him struggle against the red tape the Gazette team can't get past. His efforts are unsuccessful but let's thank him for trying. He's a good man in a system that needs a lot more. 

Collective is available on many streaming services; I saw it on Amazon Prime. Its chronicle of corrupt incompetence unfolds over 113 fascinating minutes. You'll never be bored as you witness the Gazette uncover the corruption all over. It's a great validation of a free press. It deserves either of the two Oscars it may win on April 25th. You can see why if you press play.