September 5 (15)
Cast: John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Peter Sarsgaard, Leonie BeneschGenre: Thriller
Author(s): Tim Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder, Alex David
Director: Tim Fehlbaum
Release Date: 06/02/2025
Running Time: 95mins
Country: US
Year: 2024
Young producer Geoffrey Mason begins the early morning shift covering the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics for ABC Sports when gunshots ring out across the Olympic Village. News wires spring to action and Geoff and the team learn that Israeli athletes have been taken hostage. ABC Sports President Roone Arledge and Head of Operations Marvin Bader make split second decisions with Geoff to deliver live coverage of the unfolding tragedy.
LondonNet Film Review
September 5 (15) Film Review from LondonNet
Where were you on September 11 2001 when hijacked passenger planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre? More than likely, you were watching live news coverage of unimaginable tragedy unfolding in real time. Almost 30 years earlier, a team of ABC Sports journalists covering the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics were responsible for the first live broadcast of a terrorist attack on television to an estimated global audience of 900 million people…
On September 5, cameras intended for glowing coverage of sporting excellence were retrained on the Olympic Village after eight Palestinians from the militant group Black September stormed the athletes’ accommodation, killing two members of the Israeli team. Terrorists took a further nine Israelis hostage and demanded the release of prisoners held in Israel. The world held its breath as German authorities attempted to negotiate a resolution without further bloodshed.
Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum relives the outrage from the perspective of the ABC Sports team in a gripping thriller guaranteed to have audiences chewing nails down to the cuticles, even if they know the tragic outcome. A lean script written by Moritz Binder, Fehlbaum and Alex David steadily tightens a knot of tension in stomachs, rarely venturing outside a dimly lit and stiflingly hot control room where production crew are glued to flickering TV screens and radio frequencies, scavenging scraps of verifiable information to share with viewers.
ABC Sports junior producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) begins the early shift on September 5 with a small crew including technical director Jacques Lesgards (Zinedine Soualem) and native speaker Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), who translates news coming out of the media centre and Olympic Village. Head of operations Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) is enjoying a few hours of sleep in a side room while ABC Sports president Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) has retired for the night to his hotel after thrilling coverage of Mark Spitz’s seventh gold in the swimming pool. Gunshots ring out across the Olympic Village and Geoff confers with Marvin and Roone to make split-second decisions about the morality of capturing the potential execution of Israeli athletes live on screen.
September 5 is a masterful dramatisation of shocking events in 1972, when the home nation hoped that hosting the Games would restore its post-war reputation and not remind viewers of “the last time armed Germans patrolled fences”. Fehlbaum exerts a vice-like grip over pacing, sky-rocketing our blood pressures with long takes on handheld cameras to nervously prowl ABC Sports’ makeshift broadcast facility, which is beset by technical gremlins. He elicits a compelling lead performance from Magaro, with scintillating, sweat-beaded support from Sarsgaard and Chaplin.
– Jo Planter
Popular on LondonNet
London Cinemas Showing September 5
From: Friday 18th April
To: Thursday 1st May
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UK and Irish Cinemas Showing September 5
From: Friday 18th April
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Cineworld Boldon Tyne And Wear
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Odeon Luxe Edinburgh Wester Hailes
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Odeon Luxe Glasgow Springfield Quay
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Odeon Luxe Liverpool Switch Island
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Scott Cinemas Bristol, Westbury Park
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From: Friday 2nd May
To: Thursday 8th May
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