STREAMING CINEMA
Collective Failure
Documentary charts a government failing its people’s health
BY STEVE ERICKSON
Ironically, the Romanian heavy
metal band Goodbye to Gravity
was fi nishing an anti-corruption
song when its singer
noticed that the Colectiv nightclub,
where it was performing in 2015,
had caught on fi re. Sparks started
fl ying, with the blaze quickly going
out of control. In a harrowing (but
not gory) scene, a woman apparently
realizes that her clothes are
on fi re and screams as she tries
and fails to put them out. But the
blaze itself wasn’t as deadly as its
victims’ hospital stays.
Alexander Nanau’s documentary
“Collective” tracks the investigative
journalism team led
by Catalin Tolontan, editor of the
Sports Gazette, as they discover
that antiseptic medication had
been watered down to one-tenth of
its stated strength and burn unit
patients were left to die unwashed
and covered in maggots.
Twenty-seven people died the
night of the fi re. Despite the authorities’
reassurances, dozens
more died later. Hexi Pharma
seems responsible for the diluted
meds, but its owner suddenly dies
under suspicious circumstances.
The Romanian health minister
gives his notice.
While the fi rst half of “Collective”
mostly follows Tolontan, it also devotes
attention to Tedy Ursuleanu,
a woman who was severely burned
in the nightclub, as she poses for
photographs and gets used to a
new prosthetic hand. In the second
half, the focus shifts to Vlad
Voiculescu, who suddenly gets promoted
to health minister.
The American production company
Participant helped get “Collective”
made. Participant has
come to be identifi ed with socially
conscious Oscar bait, including
“Spotlight.” One can easily picture
a fi ctionalized version of “Collective,”
spoken in English, winning
Oscars too. The fi lm celebrates
journalists’ dogged work in a way
that Americans tend to romanticize,
although paying for the conditions
under which it can happen
MAGNOLIA PICTURES
Tedy Ursuleanu, a survivor of the Colectiv nightclub fi re in Bucharest, Romania, in 2015.
Vlad Voiculescu, who suddenly rose to the post of health minister in the wake of the Colectiv fi re.
is a different story.
The cinematography of “Collective”
is pale and autumnal. Its
images were caught on the fl y.
When Voiculescu rides in a car,
the camera seems to have been
stuck to the window of the driver’s
seat. You can make a connection
between the vision of Romania offered
by “Collective” and 2000s Romanian
New Wave fi lms like “The
MAGNOLIA PICTURES
Death of Mr. Lazarescu.” Nanau
shines a light on the reality behind
their mordant wit. The Romanian
government stopped funding cinema
because it thought the Romanian
New Wave and its popularity
at arthouses and festivals around
the world made the country look
backwards. (On that note, when I
interviewed Israeli director Amos
Gitai years ago, he said, “A country
that’s secure about itself doesn’t
need propaganda.”)
“Collective” shows a nation
whose impostor syndrome carries
a body count. The country may
promote a Westernized image of itself,
but its leaders are lying when
they claim that its medical care is
as good as German hospitals. In
fact, one hospital prevents a father
from transferring his son to Vienna
for treatment in order to save
face. Romanian healthcare looks
like a grift. Sound relatable? The
initial fi re echoes the deaths of 100
people at a Rhode Island concert
by the rock band Great White in
2000, and Americans can imagine
even the healthiest victims getting
bills for tens of thousands after release
from the hospital.
The second half of “Collective”
loses some of its propulsive force.
Voiculescu comes off as a nerdy
technocrat, rather than a driven
investigator. But even if he knows
how to speak the language of bureaucracy,
his good intentions are
stymied and the cycle of corruption
rolls around again. At least Ursuleanu
is able to take charge of her
body, posing for art that shows her
burn scars while refusing to depict
her as a helpless victim.
Nanau had an amazing amount
of access to his subjects. He was
able to glean the high points from
months of governmental meetings.
He also spent months around the
Sports Gazette’s offi ce, following
the initial high points of the investigation.
“Collective” is likely to get
more attention than the usual Romanian
fi lm from Americans both
because of the parallels with our
own health care system’s deadly
dysfunction and the way it was
shaped into a narrative. Juggling
the three story threads, Nanau
shows a society learning that not
everything is as it seems and fi guring
out whether real change is
possible.
COLLECTIVE | Directed by Alexander
Nanau | Participant/ Magnolia
Pictures | In Romanian with English
subtitles | Streaming beginning
Nov. 20 at collectivemovie.com
November 19 - November 25, 2 26 020 | GayCityNews.com
/collectivemovie.com
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