The Collective: Extreme Corruption in the Romanian Health System (Documentary, Prime Video Rental)

On October 30, 2015, a fire breaks out at a Bucharest nightclub, the "Colectiv."  The club didn't have any fire exits and 27 people were incinerated while another 180 were injured!  37 club patrons were taken to the hospital but died later, sometimes even after months. Prior to the 37 subsequent deaths, the government claimed that the care of the burn victims at Romanian hospitals was equal to that of Germany, so the burn victims didn't need to be transferred to burn units in other European countries.  After the hospital deaths, there was a huge uproar and the government was overthrown.  A new government was installed with the mission to find out what had occurred and to fix the problems, but the bureaucrats involved were primarily invested in preserving the status quo and covering up all the corruption and incompetence. Catalin Tolontan was the Editor-In-Chief of the sports daily, "Gazeta Sporturilor."  He and a small group of reporters began investigating how this tragedy could have occurred.  What they discovered was horrific corruption at every level of government.  For example (and not nearly the most egregious one!), a lung transplant unit at one hospital was "accredited" even though the hospital in question didn't even have a pulmonary unit!  (I won't give any more examples to avoid spoiling the film for you.)  The courageous interim Minister of Health, Vlad Voiculescu, tried his best to uncover and fight the corruption, but he was faced with intense opposition from all levels of the new government.  (Vlad ought to give a course on stress management.  How he handled the intense attacks on him and pressure of the job with such calm and aplomb was amazing.) The Director, Alexander Nanau, has created an excellent documentary about how government corruption can endanger lives and be nearly impossible to reduce, no less eradicate.  The film has received an AA nomination for best documentary, and it deserves it!