zDrama thriller “September 5” takes a brand new strategy to inform the true story of the 1972 Munich Olympic bloodbath.
Directed by Swiss filmmaker Tim Fehlbaum and boasting an achieved ensemble forged together with Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin and Leonie Benesch, the movie follows the ABC Sports broadcasting crew as they pivot from Olympics programming to masking the growing news story.
On Sept. 5, 1972, members of the Israeli Olympic crew have been taken hostage on the poorly secured athletes’ village by Palestinian gunmen from the Black September group.
Within 24 hours, 11 Israelis, 5 Palestinians and a German policeman have been useless after a stand-off and subsequent rescue effort erupted into gunfire.
For the primary time ever, the protection of the assault, and the Games which continued because the occasions unfolded, performed out dwell on tv, watched by hundreds of thousands of individuals. One rescue try needed to be known as off when cops realised it was being proven dwell and watched by the attackers.
“We’re living in this hyper-sensationalised media atmosphere and this was kind of the beginning of it. These were people who were just doing their job, not realizing that they were changing the way we consume news forever,” mentioned Magaro, who performs Geoffrey Mason, the real-life head of the ABC Munich management room, on the movie’s London premiere on Tuesday.
“September 5” is sort of completely set within the ABC management room, with outdoors occasions enjoying on its a number of screens. The movie crew wove in actual footage and assembled nonetheless functioning studio tools of the day to make sure an genuine look.
“Some of these scenes in the Olympic Village we recreated, also out of respect, because we didn’t want to show anyone who lost their life on that day, and then we mixed all of this together,” mentioned Fehlbaum.
“Tim was absolutely passionate about it being as accurate as possible because it was a true story. Everything worked. They built the studio on ABC’s original blueprints,” mentioned Chaplin.
The film additionally depicts the ethical dilemmas the crew confronted because the disaster deepened.
“All the questions like, what do we show, is there such a thing as a neutral standpoint, is it helpful to watch potential violence live, the film raises all of these questions,” Benesch mentioned.
“The questions they had to ask themselves are still very relevant for any journalist and also for all of us,” mentioned screenwriter Mortiz Binder. “Most of us have a smartphone, have social media, so all these ethical questions are questions for everybody.”
“September 5” is produced by Hollywood star Sean Penn and its writers Binder, Fehlbaum and Alex David are up for a greatest authentic screenplay Oscar at subsequent month’s Academy Awards.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.