VOD Review - Collective

This is the official submission from Romania to the 93rd Academy Awards for Best International Feature. I've been hearing about Romanian cinema for about 15 years, ever since the release and critical acclaim for The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2006), which was the film that Romania submitted for the 78th Academy Awards. Unfortunately, that film, which in some ways was a critique of the healthcare system in Romania, wasn't nominated. In the time since, no Romanian film has been nominated in that category and only one has been shortlisted. This documentary, directed and co-written by Alexander Nanau, is the first Romanian film to be nominated at the Oscars. Nanau's film also was nominated for Best Documentary Feature. It marks the second time that a film has been named in both those categories. At the 92nd Academy Awards, Honeyland (2019) was the first film to be nominated for Best International Feature and Best Documentary Feature.

Nanau's film focuses on the aftermath of a fire on October 30, 2015, in Bucharest, the capital and largest city in Romania. The fire occurred in a nightclub called Colectiv. A heavy metal band was performing with pyrotechnics when the stage area went ablaze. Unfortunately, the nightclub didn't have fire exits or proper ones. 27 people were killed immediately and 180 were injured. However, days later, 37 people died in hospitals and those deaths are the film's main concern. It follows a journalist who investigates why those 37 people died in hospitals. It also follows a politician who looks at what can be done to rectify the situation. That situation is revealed to be Romania's health system is rotten.

Catalin Tolontan is the journalist who works for Sports Gazette, a newspaper in Bucharest. He and his staff of reporters get information from sources that inform them about problems that contributed or led to those 37 deaths. Tolontan and his team dig deeper and expose corruption within the hospitals and a pharmaceutical company that was involved. There's a bit to untangle but the bottom line is that the hospitals were not properly cleaning or sterilizing what they were doing, leading to bacterial infections and other issues. After Tolontan discovers this, the film follows him mainly to various press conferences, as he questions and he puts pressure on government officials to get the truth.

Vlad Voiculescu is the politician who works for the Ministry of Health. He actually comes into the picture after the previous government officials in the Ministry of Health lose their jobs or resign. We follow him, as he sits in various meetings, talking to other health officials or medical workers. He tries to come up with solutions or things that can be done to improve the hospital system.

The first half of the film is mainly in the perspective of Tolontan, but it then pivots and is mainly in the perspective of Voiculescu. It's then that the film becomes less engaging as Voiculescu isn't as engaging a person or character. Tolontan is more of an active character, as he's doing investigative work that's uncovering significant stuff. When it comes to Voiculescu, we mostly just see him sitting around as audio of news reports are played under him. This is meant to convey the frustration of the political system or political persons to do anything to fix anything. That could be a compelling thing to document, but it wasn't compelling here as it was just boring.

Some might consider Honeyland to be boring, but that film had other things going for it. One is the cinematography and editing. Honeyland is just stunning visually. It's beautiful and sumptuous. It also had a strong emotional component. Honeyland was about family and even neighborly relationships. Nanau's film isn't visually stunning. It's just people in offices, sitting and listening to the news. It also doesn't have a strong emotional component. Yes, there's the shock and frustration of the fire and the aftermath that resulted in deaths. The film doesn't really allow us to know much about the victims. We hear one father's testimonial about his dead son but that's brief and not really explored.

Tedy Ursuleanu is one of the burn victims with whom we spend some time. We see her get photographed and show her injuries and scars. We also see her get prosthetics. Seeing her survive and persevere in spite of what happened to her does provide an emotional component, but the moments we have with her are also brief, too brief for us to learn much about her or get much of a sense of her.

Not Rated but for Ages 14 and Up.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 54 mins.

Available on Hulu.