--- title: "Collective" year: 2019 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/collective" fi1m_score: 88 critics_score: 88 critics_reviews: 16 published: "2026-09-17T05:39:05.830154+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T05:39:16.811100+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Collective (2019) Directed by Alexander Nanau · 1h 49m · Documentary **Fi1m score: 88** · Critics 88 from 16 reviews *In a sentence:* The fire is the least frightening thing in it; the hospitals come next and the ministers after that > Alexander Nanau’s documentary follows sports reporters from a nightclub fire into the hospitals that killed its survivors, then into the ministry that let them. It is patient, angry and unusually clear, and it loses a little of its grip when it changes protagonist. ## Synopsis Bucharest, autumn 2015. A fire during a rock concert at the Colectiv nightclub kills 27 people on the night, and in the weeks that follow burn victims who were expected to recover begin dying in the city’s hospitals. At a Bucharest sports daily, editor Cătălin Tolontan and reporters Mirela Neag and Razvan Lutac pick up a tip that the disinfectant supplied to Romanian hospitals is not what its label says. They have it tested. Officials deny, stall and ask who is leaking. Meanwhile Tedy Ursuleanu, who survived the fire with severe burns, begins the long business of putting a life back together, and the parents of the dead start turning up at press conferences. ## Review The Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest caught fire on the night of 30 October 2015, during a rock concert. Twenty-seven people died on the night. By the following spring the toll was 64, most of the later deaths from infections picked up in Romanian hospitals. Alexander Nanau’s documentary is about the second number, and about the handful of people who kept asking why it was so high. He puts no questions on camera and explains nothing in voiceover. There are no captions telling us who anyone is. We are dropped into the story and left to keep up, and for most of 109 minutes we could. For the first hour the story belongs to the newsroom of a sports daily. Cătălin Tolontan, its editor, is a big, unsmiling man who talks to officials the way a referee talks to a player who has just dived, and his colleagues Mirela Neag and Razvan Lutac do the phoning and the waiting outside doors. A tip about the disinfectant used in the hospitals sends them to a laboratory. The results come back a fraction of what the labels promise. That is the whole of the first act, and it is told the way good reporting is done: a call, a document, a second call to check the first. Nanau shot it himself, handheld, in offices, corridors and the back seats of cars, and he has a reporter’s sense of where to stand: at Tolontan’s shoulder as he reads, across the table from a press officer who has run out of sentences. Four editors are credited, Dana Bunescu, George Cragg, Ana García and Nanau again, and the cutting is calm to the point of stubbornness. Scenes run until the people in them have finished, not until we have got the point. Kyan Bayani’s music is a low held tone that turns up rarely and leaves quickly. We should say what it did to us. A doctor, Camelia Roiu, brings the reporters footage shot inside her own hospital, and we will not describe it beyond saying that it concerns a patient’s wound. We felt sick. Then we felt worse, because the people watching it on screen do not look surprised, and the parents of the dead, given a microphone at a press conference, speak as if they stopped expecting anyone at the front table to look up some time ago. That is the film’s subject. Not one crime, but a country in which everybody at the table already knew. Halfway through, the film changes hands. Vlad Voiculescu, a new health minister, lets Nanau into his office, and we watch him learn, meeting by meeting, how little of the system he is supposed to run will do what he asks. He is quick, decent and plainly out of his depth, and he does not get much done. Tolontan recedes to a face on a television in the corner, and some of the pace goes with him. Running alongside both men is Tedy Ursuleanu, who survived the fire with severe burns and agrees to be photographed exactly as she is now. The scenes with her are quiet and unforced. We were not sure Nanau always knew what he wanted them for. He cuts to her when the paperwork gets heavy, and after a while it began to feel like a mercy for us rather than a decision about her. The other cost of leaving out captions is that a viewer without Romanian will meet several men in suits and not learn who they were until they have gone. Six words on screen would have done it. Romanian cinema has been to these wards before. Cristi Puiu’s *The Death of Mr Lazarescu* (2005) followed one old man through a night of hospitals that would not take him, and the diagnosis then was exhaustion. Nanau’s film says the system is not tired at all. It is doing exactly what somebody wants it to. It carries a 15 certificate, earned by two pieces of footage rather than by anything anyone says. Watch it with someone else on the sofa. We wanted to talk afterwards, and the film would count that as a result. *Fi1m score 88, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are unanimous: sixteen critics, sixteen positive verdicts, and most find Alexander Nanau’s documentary as gripping as a thriller. The praise clusters around the journalists’ patient investigation into Romania’s hospitals after the Colectiv nightclub fire, and around the access Nanau secures, particularly to the young reform-minded health minister. Several critics single out the same two moments: secretly filmed footage of maggots in a patient’s wound, and the survivor Tedy Ursuleanu. The observational style, with no narration, is repeatedly credited for the film’s force. Reservations barely exist. Scores run from a lone 70 to a pair of full marks, and the lowest, from Screen Daily at the festival premiere, still calls the film accomplished and gripping; it simply praises more quietly. The only real difference is emphasis: The Independent and The Telegraph read it as a conspiracy thriller in the line of Spotlight or All the President’s Men, while Sight and Sound and Slant treat it as an argument about public responsibility and a free press. ### Reviews we read (16) - **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (5/5): The review calls it a gripping, must-see documentary that expands the story of the nightclub fire into a takedown of a corrupt state, with forensic skill and quiet fury. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/collective) - **IndieWire**, Eric Kohn (90/100, inferred): Alexander Nanau’s bracing documentary plays like a gripping real-time thriller about the fallout from a nightclub fire and the dark forces confronting journalism. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/collective-review-alexander-nanau-1234599567/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a brilliant, suspenseful exposé of medical malpractice and corruption with universal implications, especially timely during the pandemic. It singles out the journalists' dogged investigation and the young health minister's transparency efforts for praise. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-11-18/collective-review-documentary) - **Sight and Sound** (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's scalpel-like precision in exposing corruption in Romania's health service following the Colectiv fire, noting its observational style and universal relevance to public responsibility. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/collective-alexander-nanau-fire-fraud-romanian-health-service) - **The AV Club**, Noel Murray (A-): The documentary is a taut, intense procedural that follows a journalistic investigation into Romania’s dysfunctional medical bureaucracy after a nightclub fire, exposing corruption while remaining emotionally wrenching. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/a-medical-tragedy-exposes-a-government-s-deep-rooted-fl-1845698965) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (90/100, inferred): The critic praises Nanau’s searing documentary for exposing Romania’s widespread healthcare corruption and gangsterism following the Colectiv fire, highlighting the heroic investigation by journalist Cătălin Tolontan. The review singles out the film’s depiction of bureaucratic indifference and a secretly filmed video of maggots in a patient’s wound as particularly horrifying. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/nov/19/collective-review-alexander-nanau-catalin-tolontan) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Deborah Young (90/100, inferred): The film is a visceral exposé of hospital corruption following a deadly nightclub fire, reaching emotional depths through its observational style while celebrating sound investigative journalism. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/collective-review-1239017/) - **The New York Times**, Manohla Dargis (Critic’s Pick): The critic praises the documentary for its coherent and staggering account of the scandals following the 2015 nightclub fire and the journalists' investigation into hospital corruption. It singles out the resilience and story of survivor Tedy Ursuleanu for praise. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/movies/collective-documentary-review.html) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★☆): The critic calls the documentary gripping and highlights its portrayal of intense investigative journalism uncovering wholesale corruption in Romania’s medical establishment after the Colectiv fire. It singles out the astounding access to key figures and Hollywood-style plot twists as standout features. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/collective-review-plot-twists-astound-in-a-true-tale-of-corruption-3lcdtt57m) - **The Independent**, Jake Coyle (3.5/4): The piercing documentary exposes government corruption in Romania's healthcare system following a nightclub fire and is as absorbing as Spotlight. It singles out the striking access to a reform-minded health minister and the grim visual metaphor of maggots in wounds for particular impact. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/review-in-collective-the-rot-of-government-corruption-government-corruption-corruption-nightclub-journalists-romania-b1732305.html) - **Slant Magazine**, Diego Semerene (85/100, inferred): The film is a searing chronicle of institutional corruption that reminds viewers without investigative reporting there is no democracy, highlighting the collaborative nature and urgency of journalism in the face of horror. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/collective-review-alexander-nanau/) - **Variety**, Jay Weissberg (Critics Pick): The critic hails it as an explosive observational documentary exposing sickening corruption with resonance far beyond Romania. It singles out the focus on journalists uncovering diluted disinfectants and the universal themes of lies and lack of empathy for praise. [Read](https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/collective-review-1203325599/) - **The Telegraph** (80/100, inferred): The review describes how Nanau’s documentary follows journalists exposing layers of wrongdoing in Romania’s health system after the nightclub fire, likening it to conspiracy thrillers like All the President’s Men. It singles out the focus on health minister Vlad Voiculescu’s reform efforts as a key element. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/collective-review-single-accident-brought-corrupt-romanian-elite/) - **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): Praises the accomplished documentary for its gripping investigative study of the fire and healthcare scandal, with a brisk narrative that promises exposure beyond festivals. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/collective-venice-review/5142205.article) - **The Playlist**, Chris Barsanti (A+): The critic calls the film a riveting drama of catastrophic amorality, commending its clear-eyed procedural approach to uncovering widespread corruption and its balance of professionalism with dark humor. It singles out the human cost and the tenacity of journalists and reformers. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/collective-nation-in-collapse-review-20201122/) - **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (85/100, inferred): The critic praises Nanau's damning documentary for exposing systemic corruption in Romania's healthcare system following the Colectiv nightclub fire, noting how little has changed since earlier Romanian films on the subject. It highlights the importance of a free press and the personal toll on reformers and survivors. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/collective-2019-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) ## Details - **Director:** Alexander Nanau - **Director:** Alexander Nanau - **Writer:** Alexander Nanau, Antoaneta Opris - **Cinematography:** Alexander Nanau - **Editor:** Alexander Nanau, George Cragg, Dana Bunescu, Ana García - **Music:** Kyan Bayani - **Producer:** Alina David, Alexander Nanau, Bianca Oana - **Cast:** Cătălin Tolontan as Himself; Mirela Neag as Herself; Razvan Lutac as Himself; Tedy Ursuleanu as Herself; Vlad Voiculescu as Himself; Camelia Roiu as Herself; Narcis Hogea as Herself - **Runtime:** 1h 49m - **Release (the US):** 20 November 2020 - **Genres:** Documentary - **Box office:** $200,041 - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLgGoT7v3ro ## Where to watch in the US - Tubi: free - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Amazon Prime Video: rent $2.99, sd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $9.99, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AU, BG, CA, CZ, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, HR, HU, IE, IT, JP, LT, NL, NO, NZ, PL, RO, RS, SE, SI, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 2021: Best Documentary Feature Film (nominated); Best International Feature Film (nominated) - International Submission to the Academy Awards 2021: International Submission to the Academy Awards (nominated) - LUX European Audience Film Award 2021: LUX European Audience Film Award (won) - European Film Award for Best Documentary 2020: European Film Award for Best Documentary (won) ## If you liked this - *All the President's Men* (1976), Fi1m 90: Two reporters, a lot of phone calls, and the same slow tightening around the powerful. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/all-the-presidents-men.md) - *The Death of Mr Lazarescu* (2005): A Bucharest night of hospitals that will not take a dying man; fiction, barely. - *Citizenfour* (2014), Fi1m 83: Journalism filmed as it happens, in hotel rooms, with the feeling of a fuse burning. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/citizenfour.md) - *Hospital* (1970): Frederick Wiseman in a New York emergency room, no narration, every failure in plain sight. - *Graduation* (2016): Cristian Mungiu on how one small Romanian bribe becomes a whole way of life. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/collective