Collective (2019 film)

Collective (Romanian: Colectiv) is a 2019 Romanian documentary film directed, written, produced and edited by Alexander Nanau. The film revolves around a group of investigative journalists at a Romanian newspaper in their arduous journey of uncovering public healthcare fraud, corruption and maladministration.

Collective
Directed byAlexander Nanau
Produced by
  • Alexander Nanau
  • Bernard Michaux
  • Hanka Kastelicová
  • Bianca Oana
Written by
  • Alexander Nanau
  • Antoaneta Opriș
CinematographyAlexander Nanau
Edited by
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • September 4, 2019 (2019-09-04) (Venice)
  • February 28, 2020 (2020-02-28) (Romania)
  • November 20, 2020 (2020-11-20) (USA, UK)
Running time
109 minutes
Country
  • Romania
  • Luxembourg
LanguageRomanian

The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on 4 September 2019. It was released in Romania on 28 February 2020, and on 20 November 2020 in other countries, including the UK and USA. It has received critical acclaim from critics,[1][2] as well as accolades, including from the European Film Awards and the National Society of Film Critics.[3][4] It was selected as the Romanian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards.[5]

Plot

In Bucharest, Romania, a fire breaks out and engulfs a club called Colectiv, immediately killing 27 people and injuring 180. Due to the outrage over the lack of fire exits and proper healthy and safety inspections, people took to the streets to protest the corruption and lack of accountability. Over the following few months, 37 more victims died, largely due to the lack of proper healthcare and negligible medical care at the public hospitals. These events led to even greater outrage, and ensuing mass protests resulted in the Social Democratic Party, the ruling party at the time, to resign from government.

Due to the numerous deaths of victims whilst in hospital care, journalists began investigating the mismanagement of healthcare by public hospitals. Sources from various public hospitals informed them that many patients died due to bacterial infections and that their hospitals were never safe for burn victims. The journalists began investigating the disinfectants used at public hospitals, suspecting they were diluted, as claimed by one of their sources. However, the documents provided by hospitals claimed otherwise, so the journalists decided to take and test samples of the disinfectants used.

The testing confirmed that the disinfectants supplied to public hospitals were diluted to 10% of what they’re supposed to have been. The journalists subsequently publish a hard-hitting story about the supplier, Hexi Pharma, and how it falsified the documentation for the supplied disinfectants. Furthermore, the story showed how the government blatantly failed to take any steps to properly verify the supplier and its products, and failed to properly protect medical patients from this gross injustice. In fact, the government lied about its role. The Minister of Health, Patriciu Achimaș-Cadariu, ordered investigations into the situation, since Hexi Pharma supplied over 200 hospitals at the time.

When Cătălin Tolontan, a journalist from the Gazette, goes on TV to discuss the investigation, the Minister of Health was dismissive of the journalist's insistence for facts and evidence. Moreover, the Minister stated that their own governmental testing showed that the disinfectant solutions were 95 percent effective.

The journalists push further and find a source that has been giving the intelligence service briefings since 2008, telling the service for years that the bacterial infections were killing people and what the cause was. The service knew about the problem and did nothing. The Gazette publishes the story. Mass protests continue over the corruption and lack of proper healthcare protection. Consequently, the Minister of Health resigns and leaves the press briefing without taking any questions. Furthermore, a criminal investigation begins against the CEO of Hexi Pharma, Dan Condrea.

The government announces at a press conference that they have tested the Hexi products and that they 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, Dan Condrea is killed in a car crash. No one is sure if it is an accident, murder, or suicide. The papers suspect he was killed, because he could have named all the officials within the government and public healthcare that he bribed.

Later, The Gazette finds a patient in a hospital with maggots festering in their wound. Their source, a frustrated doctor, explains patients deaths resulting from diluted disinfectants or inadequate blood transfusion services, increases unabated, even after the recent Social Democratic governmental ousting in late 2015. Vlad Voiculescu, the new technocratic Minister of Health, does not want to shut down the hospital. Therefore, he contacts the hospital to enquire about the patient, but is informed that the patient died the night earlier. The doctor meets with Vlad and details how the 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 the bribes are arranged between hospital managers and doctors. There isn't a single unit throughout the public hospitals that isn't affected by profound admirative corruption.

Vlad learns he cannot fire those corrupt hospital managers currently in place, so he demands extremely strict regulations for any new hospital managers. He meets with his team about trying to break down the corrupt hospital system and the horrific management, many of whom bribed their way into their positions. Eventually, Vlad begins to realize that the whole system is rotten, and so imbedded, eradicating corruption would entail 'firing everyone'.

Election day arrives and the Social Democrats sweep the election, obtaining the most number of votes. 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 on 4 September 2019.[6] It was also screened at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival[7] and in the Spotlight section of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.[8]

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Collective holds an approval rating of 99% based on 101 reviews, with an average rating of 9.10/10.[1] 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."[1] On Metacritic, 23 compiled reviews from critics were identified as positive, giving the film a weighted average score of 95 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim".[2]

Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Justin Chang called the film "a gripping, despairing exposé of institutional injustice".[7] Jay Weissberg of Variety called it "a documentary for our times, deserving of widespread exposure".[9] Manohla Dargis of New York Times 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."[10]

Accolades

At the 33rd European Film Awards, the film won Best European Documentary, becoming the first ever Romanian film to achieve that feat.[3] The film also won Best Documentary at the 41st Boston Society of Film Critics Awards.[4] 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 on 9 January 2021.[11] On 26 January 2021, the National Board of Review selected Collective as one of the top 5 foreign language films of the year.[12] Furthermore, the film was selected as the Romanian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards.[5]

Award Date of ceremony Category Result Ref
European Film Awards 12 December 2020 Best Documentary Won [3]
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards 13 December 2020 Best Documentary Film Won [4]
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 20 December 2020 Best Documentary Film Runner-up [13]
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 21 December 2020 Best Foreign Language Film Nominated [14]
Best Documentary Nominated
National Society of Film Critics 9 January 2021 Best Foreign Language Film Won [11]
St. Louis Film Critics Association 18 January 2021 Best Documentary Feature Won [15]
Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Houston Film Critics Society 18 January 2021 Best Documentary Feature Nominated [16]
San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle 18 January 2021 Best Documentary Film Won [17]
Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Online Film Critics Society 25 January 2021 Best Documentary Film Nominated [18]
Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
National Board of Review 26 January 2021 Best Foreign Language Film Nominated [12]
London Film Critics Circle 7 February 2021 Film of the Year Pending [19]
Foreign Language Film of the Year Pending
Documentary of the Year Pending
Independent Spirit Awards 22 April 2021 Best Documentary Feature Pending [20]

See also

References
  1. "Collective (Colectiv) (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on 25 November 2020. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  2. "Collective Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 25 November 2020. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  3. "European Film Awards Winners 2020". European Film Awards. 12 December 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  4. "Current Winners – 2020 Awards". Boston Society of Film Critics. 13 December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  5. Wiseman, Andreas (15 October 2020). "Romania Chooses Corruption Doc 'Collective' As Oscar Entry For Best International Feature". Deadline. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  6. Petre, Mirela (4 September 2019). "Primele impresii ale publicului după premiera documentarului "colectiv" la Festivalul de Film de la Veneția. "Un denunț important, făcut în scopuri bune"". Libertatea (in Romanian). Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  7. Chang, Justin (7 September 2019). "Toronto Film Festival: 'Waves' and 'Just Mercy' shine a light on black American families in crisis". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  8. "Filmul documentar "Colectiv" a fost selectat la Festivalul de Film Sundance, în secțiunea Spotlight". Europa FM (in Romanian). 5 December 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  9. Weissberg, Jay (6 September 2019). "Venice Film Review: 'Collective'". Variety. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  10. Dargis, Manohla (19 November 2020). "'Collective' Review: When Tragedy Consumes a Nation". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 December 2020. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  11. Kay, Jeremy (9 January 2021). "'Nomadland' named best picture by National Society Of Film Critics". Screen Daily. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  12. "2020 Award Winners". National Board of Review. 26 January 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  13. Davis, Clayton (20 December 2020). "Los Angeles Film Critics Winners Full List: Entire 'Small Axe' Series Tops Despite Not Being Submitted for Oscars". Variety. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  14. Adams, Ryan (December 18, 2020). "Chloe Zhao's Nomadland Leads Chicago Film Critics Association 2020 Nominations". AwardsDaily. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  15. "2020 StLFCA Annual Award Winners". St. Louis Film Critics Association. January 18, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  16. "The 2020 Houston Film Critics Society (HFCS) Winners". NextBestPicture.com. 18 January 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  17. "SFBAFCC 2020 AWARDS". San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle. January 18, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  18. Ramos, Dino-Ray (January 25, 2021). "Online Films Critics Society Unveils Annual Film Awards Recipients, Names 'Nomadland' Best Picture". Deadline. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  19. "'Saint Maud' Leads London Critics' Circle Film Awards Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter. 12 January 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  20. Lewis, Hilary (January 26, 2021). "Film Independent Spirit Awards: 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always,' 'Minari,' 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,' 'Nomadland' Top Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
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