Collective is the name of the Romanian film nominated for Oscars this year, both for Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature.

It's also the name of a Bucharest nightclub which went up in flames on October 30, 2015.

27 people died more or less immediately, another 180 injured, and then in the

weeks to come, 37 more perished in unsanitary hospitals, not from their burns, but from infection.

When it became clear, the government was lying, public rage was so intense, the government was forced

to step down, replaced by short-term technocrats who would serve for a year before the next election.

The film begins with grief and ends with it, but it's not grim, it's gripping, because the investigative reporters, shadowed

in the film, peel away the layers of government corruption like the proverbial onion, until the

great moral vacuum at its heart is exposed. And who does the peeling? The Bucharest-based

Sports Gazette, ultimately the nation's most trustworthy news source.

The film has much to tell about the struggle for justice and the courage and patience it requires.

Alexander Na Now is the director of the film Collective. Welcome to On the Media.

Thank you for having me on the show.

The film is truly remarkable, not just for how it covers the story, but how well you lay out the stakes at every turn.

It starts with a national tragedy, and it ends with the national election.

The fire that erupted in the collective was a national tragedy. It was a popular club. It was a

certain generation that went to the club, students, but also older people, people that have

also their own bands. Everybody seemed to know somebody that was there

that night. Demonstrations erupted all around the country in many cities.

The demonstrations were the biggest one since the revolution.

It was a very young generation that organized in social media within one day to take the streets.

It seemed like a turning point.

...