Collective (Romania, 2019)

"And now for something completely different". This is the first Romanian film we have had for a long time, and it is a hard hitting docu-drama based on a true event.

In 2015, a rock band was performing in Bucharest in a night club called Colectiv. A fire broke out and caused the immediate deaths of 27 people. Amazingly a further 37 people died over the following months, partly due to lack of adequate medical care, due even though the patients were in hospital.

The film follows the work of the investigative journalists who looking into the mismanagement of healthcare and corruption in the pharmaceutical industry. The film received huge accolades and the Best European Documentary Award (the first Romanian film to win such an award.

It is more than documentary however and nor is it entirely bleak. The New York Times reviewer wrote; "[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."

In our world today, this is a must-see. There will be a great discussion after this for sure.