“Collective” shortlisted for Oscar

In a first for Romanian cinema, a local film was shortlisted in two categories for the Oscars.

Bogdan Matei, 11.02.2021, 13:50

Alexander Nanau’s
documentary film Collective is on the short list for an Oscar in both the documentary
feature and the international feature film categories. This is the first
time that a Romanian production is shortlisted in two categories at the American
Academy Awards. The film follows the investigation of a group of journalists
into the corruption of the Romanian healthcare sector in the wake of a fire
that broke out on 30th October 2015 at the Bucharest nightclub Colectiv
and which killed more than 60 people. The film has already received two awards.
Last year, it was named best documentary at the European Film Awards and this
year it won the best documentary award from the London Critics’ Circle Film
Awards. The Oscar nominations will be announced on 15th March and
the award ceremony will be held on 25th April.

Born in Romania and living
in Germany, the film’s director Alexander Nanau says the nomination of his
film, which is in fact a Romania-Luxembourg coproduction, is the work of a team
from four continents. In a statement to Agerpress news agency, he emphasised
that by its inclusion on the Oscars shortlist, the story in the film gets to be
passed on. It’s a story about the state, about incompetent authorities who
trample on people’s lives through deception and manipulation and it’s very important
to be seen by as many people as possible and maybe it will help others realise when
they are being manipulated and their lives are being placed in danger by the authorities,
Nanau also said. He explained that some themes are universally valid, all over
the word, one of which being the importance of having an independent press and
the fact that without an independent press we basically have no access to the
truth, because those in power will always be tempted to create a parallel
reality and hide their intentions and abuse their power. Alexander Nanau was
also quoted as saying that Romanian society has changed a lot since the fire
at Colectiv in 2015. The wish for change is more and more visible, he said.

Tragedies caused by the
cynicism and moral corruption of hospital managers and the politicians who
protect them, fires with multiple victims keep reoccurring in Romania. It was
only a couple of weeks ago, that a fire broke out at a ward containing many patients
at Matei Balş Institute in Bucharest, Romania’s
biggest infectious diseases hospital and one of its most modern and best
equipped. Another similar tragedy took place last November at the emergency
hospital in Piatra Neamţ, in the north-east. Alexander Nanau believes this is
the sad record of the incompetence and corruption of people who have been
running state institutions and hospitals for dozens of years, the result being
that people are dying. (CM)