Alexander Nanau’s Collective is an effective primer on Romanian politics, their broken health care system, and the nightclub fire that launched massive protests against government corruption. However, the film’s narrative construction is disjointed and slightly haphazard, keeping viewers at a distance from what should be an intensely personal story. For the first half of the film, we primarily follow the journalists of Sports Gazette, a daily sports paper whose investigative journalists broke the news of widespread corruption throughout Romanian hospitals. Over the second half of the film, we follow a new, reform-minded Minister of Health as he tries to battle the corruption. And through it all, we get glimpses of one of the survivors of the nightclub fire as she attempts to rebuild her life. All of the information presented is compelling on its own, and the film touches on vital issues about the importance of journalism and the threats of rising fascism across the globe. However, the three segments are never effectively integrated, and any attempts to make the pieces fit together feel forced – such as the moment the Minister of Health meets with the survivor on the eve of a major election. There’s compelling content throughout the film, it just never fully comes together.