X
- 2020
- Not Rated
- 1 h 49 m
- 2020
- Not Rated
- 1 h 49 m
Summary Collective follows a heroic team of journalists as they uncover shocking, widespread corruption. After a deadly nightclub fire, the mysterious death of the owner of a powerful pharmaceutical firm, and the quiet resignation of a health minister—seemingly unrelated events, all within weeks of each other—the team of intrepid reporters expos...
Directed By: Alexander Nanau
Written By: Antoaneta Opris, Alexander Nanau
- 2020
- Not Rated
- 1 h 49 m
- 2020
- Not Rated
- 1 h 49 m
Collective
7.8
Where to Watch
Summary Collective follows a heroic team of journalists as they uncover shocking, widespread corruption. After a deadly nightclub fire, the mysterious death of the owner of a powerful pharmaceutical firm, and the quiet resignation of a health minister—seemingly unrelated events, all within weeks of each other—the team of intrepid reporters expos...
Directed By: Alexander Nanau
Written By: Antoaneta Opris, Alexander Nanau
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 24 Critic Reviews
95
100% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 24 Critic Reviews
95
100% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Granted a rare degree of access to reporters, and later to the Minister of Health, Collective is a tribute to people who work together to uncover the truth, even if the immediate benefits are not obvious.
Alexander Nanau's Collective has a propulsive energy, relentlessly building in urgency and outrage.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 54 User Ratings
7.8
85% Positive
46 Ratings
46 Ratings
4% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
11% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 54 User Ratings
7.8
85% Positive
46 Ratings
46 Ratings
4% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
11% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
The horrors of Collective are sickeningly specific; the implications, as suggested by its comprehensive indictment of a title, are universal.
Report
What makes Nanau’s film utterly compelling is the unfettered access he had to both the Sports Gazette journalists and to Minister of Health Voiculescu. There are no interviews or talking heads here: Everything unfolds as it is happening.
It’s a taut, intense procedural, with a resonant story that simultaneously follows a journalistic investigation and an attempt to fix a fatally dysfunctional medical bureaucracy—all while criminal organizations, corrupt politicians, and rabble-rousing television hosts work in concert to stymie any real reform.
Watching Collective when it premiered on the fall festival circuit last year, it was easy to see that it should be considered a flat-out masterpiece regardless of timing. Yet to watch it, or rewatch it, now is to experience something even deeper. It’s a story of a nation’s inability to take care of its citizens that comes to us in the middle of a pandemic that’s crippling America’s economy and killing its citizens.
The film reminds us that without investigative reporting there’s no democracy, and that traditional expectations around impartiality and objectivity may be untenable in the face of horror.
There’s deja vu in watching Tolontan deal with Romanian TV, which eagerly follows his team’s reporting each night, but which cannot resist from shooting at the messenger when he appears on their talk shows, losing the thread and forgetting the real victims here.
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.
Report
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.
Report
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.
Report
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.
Report
Production Company
Alexander Nanau Production,
Samsa Film,
HBO Europe,
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR),
Centrul National al Cinematografiei (CNC),
Luxembourg Film Fund,
Sundance Institute Documentary Fund,
Philophon
Release Date Nov 20, 2020
Duration 1 h 49 m
Rating Not Rated
Genres
Website
https://www.collectivemovie.com/
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 2 Nominations
Gopo Awards, Romania
• 3 Wins & 5 Nominations
Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US
• 2 Wins & 5 Nominations
