colectiv, the documentary made by
Alexander Nanau, will be screened in the
Out of competition section of the festival which will take place from August 28 to September 7.
colectiv is an observational documentary which tells the story of the first year after the Colectiv Club fire. With equal interest, the film follows the authorities and the journalists, in a permanent interaction
of searching and exposing the truth. It is a film about system versus people, about truth versus manipulation, about personal interest versus the public one, about courage and individual responsibility.
“Because I have lived my life between cultures ad countries, I have never had the feeling that I belong somewhere. In November 2015, the emotion of thousands of people that shouted out COLECTIV, in one voice, made me want to understand how the people who dedicate themselves to the development of the community they live in are built. I discovered journalists, whistleblowers, activists who by their actions succeeded in stripping down some painful truths for the society. At the counter pole, I found people and systems that override the dignity and the very life of the others, lying and manipulating, perverting the truth
and the law from their political or financial power positions.” Alexander Nanau says about the documentary.
“Being part of the team of this film was an intense experience for me. Working alongside Alexander on such a difficult topic and in a challenging aesthetical-cinematographical key, enriches you. And maybe above this, exorcizing my own demons after the Colectiv drama that this long journey of making the film succeeded in doing in a certain way and the process of directly finding out and painfully understanding of the sick way in which we function as a society, are the experiences that had a powerful effect on me during these last four years.” Mihai Grecea, a survivor of the Colectiv fire, said. Mihai is the artistic collaborator of the project; he decided to join the film team shortly after he was released from the hospital, when the film was in the research stage.
The protagonists of the film are: Narcis Hogea, the father of Alex Hogea, one of the victims that lost their life in the fire, Cătălin Tolontan, Mirela Neag and Răzvan Luțac, the team of journalists of investigation from Gazeta Sporturilor, Camelia Roiu, a doctor
working at the Clinical Emergency Hospital of Plastic Surgery, Reconstruction and Burns of Bucharest, Mariana Oprea (Tedy), one of the survivors and Vlad Voiculescu, a former Minister of Health. The production effort meant 14 months of shooting, 18 months of editing and in involved 60 people from 5 countries and 9 nationalities.
colectiv is produced by Alexander Nanau Production, in co-production with Samsa Film Luxembourg and HBO Europe, with the support of the Romanian Film Centre, Luxemburg Film Fund and Sundance Documentary Fund, with the participation of RTS Switzerland, YES Docu and MDR Germany. The film will be available on HBO GO and HBO and in November it will be released in the Romanian cinemas by Alexander Nanau Production, in partnership with Voodoo Films.
The production team included: Alexander Nanau (director, director of photography, editor, producer), Mihai Grecea (artistic collaborator), Antoaneta Opriș (dramaturgy), Bianca Oana (producer Alexander Nanau Production), Hanka Kastelicova (producer HBO Europe), Alina David (producer HBO România) and Bernard Michaux (producer Samsa Film).
