COLLECTIVE ****

 This magnificent documentary, (a nominee for Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature at this year's Oscars), is about as devastating as documentary films can get. In 2015 a fire destroyed the Bucharest club Colectiv; 27 people died at the scene and a further 37 died later in hospital, not from their burns but from infections picked up in the hospital. The reason? The disinfectants used in the hospital were diluted, sometimes up to ten times. Alexander Nanau's film sets out to explore the corruption endemic in the Romanian health system, (and the Government as a whole), by following the story, firstly as taken up by a team of journalists, and latterly by the newly appointed Health Minister who tried to reform the system, the existing Social Democratic Party having been forced to resign after a public outcry.

"Collective" is a film about investigative journalism that itself becomes a great piece of investigative journalism and it's a truly frightening expose of institutional corruption. As Nanau's camera moves between the journalists and the young Minister, he takes time to focus on one of the victims who, without bitterness, attempts to salvage her life in ways that might seem unimaginable. Otherwise he simply records events as they unfold. The heroes of the film clearly are Catalin Tolontan, the journalist who initiates the investigation, (and he was a sports writer) and Vlad Voiculescu, the Health Minister who goes up against the system from within. These are men who not only put their careers at risk but their lives; at one point it is suggested a leading figure may have been murdered to ensure his silence.

During the course of the film we learn that Romania had the worst record for hospital deaths in Europe and that almost certainly was down to the corrupt system in operation but watching this deeply disturbing film you might ask yourself could this happen elsewhere in supposedly civilised Europe. As one doctor in the film says, 'we are no longer human beings. We only think about money' and as the old saying goes, you couldn't make this up. "Collective" is the one essential film of the last twelve months.