Romanian Film Traces Newspaper Exposé That Changed a Nation

In the days and months that followed, another 38 succumbed to their injuries or to bacterial infections picked up in the hospitals where they were treated.

On the streets, a wave of popular anger gripped Romania, forcing the resignation of then Prime Minister Victor Ponta and his cabinet over systematic state failings exposed by the tragedy.

The backstory to the Colectiv fire was laid bare on the big screen on Monday in a German-Romanian documentary that tells how a team of investigative journalists at Romania's Gazeta Sporturilor uncovered the corrupt scheme that contributed to the deaths of burn victims who survived the initial blaze.

"I thought that the investigative press was probably the most natural way to understand the relationship between power and the citizens," director Alexander Nanau said after a special screening of the film, called Collective in English, for journalists in Bucharest.

Mirela Neag and Catalin Tolontan. Photo: Collective

'Everyone knew how people died there'

Embedding his camera with investigative journalist Catalin Tolontan and his colleagues Mirela Neag and Razvan Lutac, Nanau traces how their reports through 2016 revealed that a major private disinfectant producer had maximised profits by heavily diluting supplies to hundreds of Romanian healthcare providers.

The revelations stunned Romanians still grappling with rampant corruption and systematic negligence three decades after the fall of communism and 13 years since the country joined the European Union.

Gazeta Sporturilor's coverage included a disturbing video taken at Romania's only burns hospital, where a doctor used her mobile phone to film worms that had infected the head wounds of a patient injured in the...

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