September 5 (American premiere in the presence of Tim Fehlbaum)

Tim Fehlbaum: September 5 (DE 2024). The ABC control studio at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Festival premiere: 29 Aug 2024 Venice.

Language: English.

Made possible by a donation from the Nelson Family Foundation.

Viewed at the Werner Herzog Theatre, Telluride Film Festival (TFF), 2 Sep 2024.

In person: Tim Fehlbaum, Peter Sarsgaard.

Larry Gross (TFF 2024): "When 11 Israeli athletes were taken hostage by a group calling themselves Black September at the 1972 Munich Olympics, it reshaped the world’s understanding of terrorism. Writer-director Tim Fehlbaum and co-writer Moritz Binder recount this often-told story from a fresh and absorbing perspective: We follow a team of ABC TV sports journalists as they struggle to deal with shocking, almost incomprehensible events unfolding in very close to real time. John Magaro (FIRST COW) plays an inexperienced lineproducer, Ben Chaplin his exhausted boss, Peter Sarsgaard the legendary ABC executive-producer Roone Arledge and Leonie Benesch (THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE) the colleague trying to get information from the German police. All four are superb. We know how it turns out, but Fehlbaum and his team work with a quiet precision and clarity that is riveting, and shattering, more than 50 years later." –Larry Gross (Germany, 2024, 94 min) 

AA: There have been several first rate movies about the 1972 Munich Olympics, but Tim Fehlbaum's September 5 is unique in its relentless focus on the television broadcasting control studio. We only know what the journalists know and follow the unbearable turns of the tragedy in tandem with them.

September 5 is interesting to watch right after Jason Reitman's Saturday Night seen two days ago. Reitman showed us the creative chaos preceding the birth and first telecast of the landmark Saturday Night Live show at NBC.

September 5 is about the first global live telecast of the Olympics, covered by the ABC Sports Division - the 1972 Munich Olympics, horribly disrupted by the massacre of the Israeli athletes' team by the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September, assisted by West German Neo-Nazis.

September 5 is one of the best films I know about journalism. Its approach to the questions of journalistic ethics is sound and professional, and I would recommend this movie to classes on journalism and mass communication. Here the team must learn by doing, because a situation like this has never happened before.

Tim Fehlbaum sums up key questions: "Can we share information before it is confirmed? Can a live broadcast include acts of violence? What is the role of media and journalism, and what is the line between news and spectacle?" And further: what is the responsibility of the media in a case where the main goal of the terrorists is media attention? Plus also: what can the media show when terrorists follow the broadcast, too? In September 5, ABC reveals in live transmission the German police's siege strategy which fails as a consequence.

The whole world is watching - more people see this than the landing on the Moon.

For Germany, this is a trial of fire, because this is the first Olympics in Germany since the 1938 Berlin Olympics during the Third Reich. The shadows of the Holocaust loom large, Germans are committed to atone for the darkest moment of history. On the other hand, "Fortunate Son" on the soundtrack reminds us that the Vietnam War is not over, and ABC is committed to broadcast something elevating in contrast.

The worst possible thing happens. Like in Shoah and The Zone of Interest, we see nothing but understand everything by the soundtrack. For Marianna Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), the German interpreter, this is the darkest day. Germany of all places should have been the safest haven for the Israeli team.