\n
<\/p>\n
The documentary ‘colectiv’,
\nmade by Alexander Nanau and screened for the first time at the Venice Film
\nFestival in September last year, has now reached the Romanian cinema halls. The
\ndocumentary speaks of corruption in the Romanian health-care system and can be
\nseen in more than 30 theaters in 20 towns and cities across the country. ‘colectiv’
\nwas screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and got the best
\ndocumentary award in the international competition of the 15th Film
\nFestival in Zurich.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After the premiers in Venice and Toronto, where it got good
\nreviews and stirred controversial reactions, ‘colectiv’ was the only
\ndocumentary screened in the Spotlight section of the Sundance Film Festival, held
\nbetween January 23rd and February 2nd 2020, a tribute
\nsection devoted to exceptional films that had their debuts the previous year.
\nThe observational documentary, produced and directed by Alexander Nanau in co-production with HBO Europe and Samsa Film, follows the events occurring over
\nthe first year since the tragedy at the Colectiv club in Bucharest, where a
\nfire killed 66 people on October 30th, 2015. It focuses on the
\nrelations between authorities and journalists, in a bid to find the truth.
\n‘colectiv’ is about people versus the system, the fine line between truth and
\nlie, about courage and responsibility. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here is director Alexander Nanau
\nhimself: I
\nhave decided that a story must be told about what happened, that the process
\nhappening in Romanian society must be understood. We set up a fact-finding
\nteam, we researched the story from all directions and, together with Antoaneta
\nOpris, who is a co-author of the film, I understood that we had to focus on the
\nmedia, because the media has the power to decipher the relation between the
\npower and the citizen. And we chose to tell the story through the eyes of the
\nmedia, because back them, the team made up of the Sports Journal team, namely
\nCatalin Tolontan, Mirela Neag and Razvan Lutac, was the only one that had
\nstarted to ask questions. The rest of the media and the politicians would only
\nlie and misinform the population. They were saying that the victims could have
\nsurgery in Romania, because the conditions were good, but the Sports Journal
\nteam discovered that the burns unit of the Floreasca Emergency Hospital, where
\nthe victims were supposed to be operated, was actually closed. So we realized
\nthat more could come out of that situation. Because the team headed by Catalin
\nTolontan was known for their investigations, we thought of going to them and
\nask whether they had something extra, something new to work on in order to
\nexpose the lies of the state and if they could let us follow the process. In
\nthe beginning they were rather reluctant, but seeing that our team went so deep
\ninto the subject, they started trusting us and we started collaborating. And,
\nwhile we were shooting the documentary, we realized that we were documenting a
\nreal-life thriller.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The corrosive corruption revealed has
\nramifications far greater than just in Romania, for it’s indicative of a
\nworldwide phenomenon in which people feel so disconnected from others that
\nempathy has been replaced by avarice, and strangers are viewed as abstractions.
\nThis is truly a documentary for our times, deserving of widespread exposure
\nwrote Variety about ‘colectiv’. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Director Alexander Nanau once again: To me, choosing a subject is related
\nto what I wish to learn from life, from other people, and that leads me towards
\na certain theme. I always strive to improve my knowledge about something, and a
\ndocumentary film, especially the observational type, provides one with this
\nopportunity of subsequently translating the experience and the emotions into a
\nstory. This process is an extremely powerful life lesson, maybe like choosing a
\nlife partner. Because the subject you choose becomes a partner and you grow
\ntogether.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Alexander Nanau, who is a German – Romanian director
\nand producer, studied directing at the famous German Film and TV Academy in
\nBerlin and is the holder of two scholarships at the Sundance Institute and the
\nArts Academy in Berlin. In 2007 he set up in Romania the Alexander Nanau
\nProduction house. His documentary ‘The world seen by Ion B. won in 2010 the
\nEmmy International trophy in the Arts Programming Category, and ‘Toto and his
\nsisters’ was nominated for the European Film Awards in 2015. Nanau was also the
\nphotography director of the French-German documentary ‘Nothingwood’, filmed in Afghanistan,
\nwhich premiered at Cannes in 2017, in the Quinzaine des Realisateurs section. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
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‘colectiv’, by Alexander Nanau, has now reached the Romanian cinema halls<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":162813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-162812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n