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Director Alexander Nanau follows a team of investigative journalists at the newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor as they uncover a vast health care fraud that siphoned off urgent hospital funding and diluted disinfectants while enriching the country's most powerful moguls, hospital managers, doctors, and politicians

Synopsis


"When the press bows down to the authorities, the authorities will mistreat its citizens. This always happens, worldwide, and it has happened to us."
- Cătălin Tolontan, Collective

On October 30, 2015, a serious fire broke out at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest. It was one of the worst disasters in recent Romanian history, with 27 people killed and 180 injured. Fierce protests erupt when 37 of the injured subsequently die from bacterial infections. Director Alexander Nanau follows a team of investigative journalists at the newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor as they uncover a vast health care fraud that siphoned off urgent hospital funding and diluted disinfectants while enriching the country's most powerful moguls, hospital managers, doctors, and politicians. As the tide begins to turn with increased public awareness, Collective brings home the essential role of a free press in calling out corruption.

Official Selection, Toronto International Film Festival, 2019
Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival, 2020

Please be advised this film contains material that may be disturbing to some viewers.

 

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Credits

Alexander Nanau

Director

Alexander is a German-Romanian filmmaker born in Romania who studied directing at The Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). His  documentary film, The World According To Ion B was awarded an International Emmy Award in 2010. His feature documentary  film Toto And His Sisters was a European  Academy Award nominee 2015.  The film had a wide international distribution and played  successfully  in festivals worldwide. Alexander served as Director of Photography for the French/German documentary Nothingwood (Sonia  Kronlund) that was shot in Afghanistan and premiered in Cannes as part of La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in 2017. His latest feature length documentary Collective premiered at the Venice IFF 2019 - as part of the Official Selection - Out of Competition and is a co-production with Samsa Film (Luxembourg) and HBO Europe.