There have been some strong documentaries this year, but Collective is comfortably the best of the lot. In 2015, a fire at Bucharest’s Collectiv club results in 27 people dying. But then many of the 180 people injured with burns begin dying in hospitals from wounds that were not life threatening.
Alexander Nanau’s shocking and gripping film is shot in fly-on-the-wall style and follows three story strands. Initially we see the brave and resourceful newspaper journalists, headed by Catalin Tolontan, uncover the scandal. When the principled Vlad Voiculescu is appointed as a health minister, the focus of the story moves to him as the sheer scale of the corruption is revealed. Also, peppered throughout the story are scenes from Tedy Ursuleanu’s recovery from the horrific injuries she sustained in the fire.
Early on we see more footage from the incident than I would have expected, but that turns out not to be the most jaw dropping moment in the film. That happens as the web of bribes, deceit and indifference to the plight of hospital patients that envelope the entire system from government ministers, to hospital managers, suppliers of cleaning materials and doctors is revealed.
As Tolonton reveals more of the issues of the Romanian healthcare system and Voiculescu starts to take small steps to improve things, you might be tempted to think that some good will come out of a tragic event. However, the results from a general election held towards the end of the movie arrive like a punch in the gut. Even in a world where a lazy, stupid sociopath can be the president of the United States (though not for much longer if his coup attempt is unsuccessful) or a serial liar and racist can preside over the most corrupt British government in the modern era, the landslide victory for a party that created the conditions that led to so many deaths and tried to cover it up is mind blowing.
A stunning and vital film.
Rating : 9.5 out of 10
Sky continues to provide an underwhelming line up of 2020 films on its Premiere movie channel.
Of the group this week, the most watchable is American Fighter. An Iranian boy, desperate for cash for his ailing mother, finds himself involved in the bare knuckle boxing scene. Set in 1981, it could have been made then with its cheesy story, training montages and chaste romance. It is predictable and unoriginal but is more fun than the dire Dreamkatcher that also suffers from the same issues. A witless horror film about yet another child possessed by something evil. But that seems like a masterpiece compared to the ineptly made Infamous. A couple of idiot rednecks played by Bella Thorne and Jake Manley commit a series of robberies and gain a social media following when they post their exploits on line. The pair make one of the least charismatic couples I’ve seen and the comments on how people are in thrall to social media are made in a really clumsy way. Bonnie and Clyde it ain’t! Better but still not one I could recommend is The Photograph. This is a soapy drama about a group of intertwined love stories. It is pretty pedestrian, wasting the talents of Kelvin Harrison Jr and LaKeith Stanfield.
American Fighter: 5 out of 10
Dreamkatcher: 3 out of 10
Infamous: 2 out of 10
The Photograph: 4.5 out of 10