Interview: Alexander Nanau

The Oscar-nominated documentary maker, Alexander Nanau, tells Roxana Raileanu how Romania’s healthcare system is the last stronghold of the country’s Communist past

The World Today
3 minute READ

In October 2015, an indoor pyrotechnics display at a Bucharest nightclub, Colectiv, burned horribly out of control, killing 27 people. In the four months that followed, scores more burns victims died of preventable infections in Romanian hospitals.

The documentary, Collective, follows the investigations of the journalist, Catalin Tolontan, who uncovered a deep seam of corruption running through the country’s healthcare system. His reporting uncovered a widespread fraud involving diluted hospital disinfectants that allowed superbugs to infect burns patients and kill them. The ensuing public uproar forced the Romanian government to resign. 
 

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