Film ‘September 5’ offers new perspective on Olympic tragedy

LONDON: Drama thriller “September 5” takes a new approach to tell the true story of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre.

Directed by Swiss filmmaker Tim Fehlbaum and boasting an accomplished ensemble cast including Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin and Leonie Benesch, the film follows the ABC Sports broadcasting team as they pivot from Olympics programming to covering the developing news story.

On Sept. 5, 1972, members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage at the poorly secured athletes’ village by Palestinian gunmen from the Black September group.

Within 24 hours, 11 Israelis, five Palestinians and a German policeman were dead after a stand-off and subsequent rescue effort erupted into gunfire.

For the first time ever, the coverage of the attack, and the Games which continued as the events unfolded, played out live on television, watched by millions of people.

One rescue attempt had to be called off when police officers realised it was being shown live 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 realising that they were changing the way we consume news forever,“ said Magaro, who plays Geoffrey Mason, the real-life head of the ABC Munich control room, at the film’s London premiere on Tuesday.

“September 5” is almost entirely set in the ABC control room, with outside events playing on its multiple monitors.

The film team wove in real footage and assembled still functioning studio equipment of the day to ensure an authentic 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,” said Fehlbaum.

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“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,” said Chaplin.

The movie also depicts the moral dilemmas the team faced as the crisis 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 said.

“The questions they had to ask themselves are still very relevant for any journalist and also for all of us,” said 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 best original screenplay Oscar at next month’s Academy Awards.