“I experienced the full extent of the blow suffered by a democratic European society which could never have imagined that dozens of people could die when going out to a club. The hospital he was treated at refused to release him to care abroad, delaying the process and, along with it, the young man’s chances of survival.Īlexander Nanau, the director of the film, has said Colectiv represented a turning point in Romanian society. While contamination rates went underreported, hospitals argued that they were more than equipped to treat dozens of burn victims, refusing to send some abroad, effectively sealing their fates.Īlexandru Hogea, a victim remembered in the documentary, was 19 when he died in a Vienna hospital after contracting infections in a Romanian hospital. The victims were treated with disinfectants that were watered down to save money even before they reached the hospitals, causing them to develop resistance to lifesaving antibiotics. Sixty-four people died-some at the scene, some later on, many of whom succumbed to infections they caught while being treated in Romanian hospitals, rather than from burn injuries themselves. But with the right payments behind the scenes, none of this mattered.Ī spark spread from the show’s pyrotechnics, and the ceiling quickly caught fire. The club had not been issued a permit by the fire department, it had soundproof material that was extremely flammable, and it didn’t have enough exits to legally withstand the number of people the club hosted on a nightly basis.
COLLECTIVE DOCUMENTARY LICENSE
The nightclub was given a license by the mayor to operate without having the necessary safety measures and fire precautions in place.
One of the biggest issues is corruption.Ĭorruption was also the main actor in the Colectiv tragedy. For the young, in particular, there’s a sharp divide between what they see in other EU states when they travel or work in other countries and the reality of Romanian life. Romania ranks lowest among European Union states in quality of life and well-being of society and has among the lowest levels of spending on health care and education in the bloc. The tragedy, which would simply be known as “Colectiv” (the name of the nightclub), became a tipping point for the Eastern European country-a crisis unlike anything seen since the 1989 revolution that ended Communist Party rule. It sparked a political and social crisis in Romania, one that is still reverberating today and that inspired the Oscar-nominated documentary Collective. Four of the five bandmates, along with 60 other people, died in the fire that erupted at the club that night. That concert would be the last for the relatively unknown band, Goodbye to Gravity. Soon, those words became a mantra for protesters. “We’re not numbers, we’re free, we’re so alive (so alive) / ’Cause the day we give in is the day we die (the day we die).” So went the lyrics of one of the band’s new songs, “ The Day We Die.” 30, 2015, in a crowded club in midtown Bucharest, a local metal band performed as part of the launch of a new album.
0 kommentar(er)
