Original title: | September 5 |
Director: | Tim Fehlbaum |
Release: | Cinema |
Running time: | 94 minutes |
Release date: | 13 december 2024 |
Rating: |
This film tells the 22 hours of the hostage-taking of Israeli athletes by a Palestinian terrorist commando during the 1972 Olympic Games. The strength of this film lies in its point of view, the ABC Sports television team. It is the only American television to be on site to cover the Munich Olympic Games. We go behind the scenes of this media. For an hour and a half, we are immersed in the ABC studios, with the team of journalists. We follow their thoughts, their doubts, the pressure, their hopes, their anxieties. This day is carefully reconstructed until its tragic end. Tim Fehlbaum succeeds in a journalistic thriller, without ever falling into the trap of sensationalism.
Tim Fehlbaum is a Swiss director (Tides, Hell), who studied in Munich. With his Munich producers, he began work on the script. They obtained the agreement of ABC and the protagonists of the time. Filming in English with American actors became essential. They shoot at the Bavaria studios in Munich. This proximity to the scene of the tragedy helped the actors.
The other strength of this film is its credible casting. John Magaro plays young director Geoff Mason, who comes to work for the first time and proves himself to the director, Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), thanks to his mentor Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin). The cast includes a French technician played by Zinedine Soualem and a German translator (Leonie Benesch). This team of sports journalists finds itself faced with covering a political hostage-taking.
This tragic event was the first to be covered live and broadcast worldwide, in front of 900 million viewers. As ABC had built its studio next to the Olympic Village, they were the only ones to have a camera pointed at the hostage-taking building. In an age of 24/7 news channels, this film asks ever-present questions about the ethics of journalists. Ten years ago, during the Charlie and Hyper Cacher french attacks, a french channel BFM TV revealed the presence of hostages hidden in the cold room of the Hyper Cacher supermarket. The channel had been ordered to no longer broadcast sequences that undermined the protection of public order. A movie to be seen for public interest.
The film is nominated for the 2025 Oscars in the Best Original Screenplay category.
September 5
Directed by Tim Fehlbaum
Written by Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, Alex David
Produced by Philipp Trauer, Thomas Wöbke, Tim Fehlbaum, Sean Penn, John Ira Palmer, John Wildermuth
Starring Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch, Zinedine Soualem
Cinematography : Markus Förderer
Edited by Hansjörg Weißbrich
Music by Lorenz Dangel
Production companies : BerghausWöbke Filmproduktion, Projected Picture Works, Constantin Film, Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures (United States), Paramount Pictures (France)
Release dates : August 29, 2024 (Venice), December 13, 2024 (United States), February 5, 2025 (France)
Running time : 94 minutes
Seen December 3, 2024 at UGC Neuilly
Sabine's Mark:
There are films that tell the story, and others that make you feel like you're living it. Tim Fehlbaum's September 5 belongs firmly in the latter category: a tense, relentless and thought-provoking account of the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics, as seen through the eyes of the ABC Sports broadcast team. In less than 95 minutes, director Tim Fehlbaum manages to recreate one of the most infamous days in modern history, not by focusing on the tragic events themselves, but by enclosing viewers in a control room filled with clunky screens, static headsets and a growing sense of dread. The result is a pure masterpiece of narrative economy, technical precision and ethical complexity, a film that lingers in the mind long after its last frame.
If you're expecting a sprawling epic like Steven Spielberg's Munich or a deeply political documentary like A Day in September, adjust your expectations. September 5 doesn't seek to dramatize the violence of that fateful day or provide a comprehensive history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Instead, it focuses on a single, claustrophobic setting: the ABC Sports control room, where a team of broadcasters - initially prepared to cover volleyball and boxing - is suddenly thrust into the heart of a live international crisis. Focusing exclusively on the media's point of view, director Tim Fehlbaum makes a film as much about the storytelling process as the story itself.
From the outset, the tension is palpable. The film opens with the ABC crew in the middle of a routine broadcast, capturing the energy of the Olympics with the cheerful professionalism of seasoned sports reporters. But the calm is broken when news breaks that shots have been fired in the Israeli athletes' dormitories. What happens is a real-time depiction of chaos, as the team struggles to gather facts, resolve ethical dilemmas and maintain composure under unimaginable pressure. The fact that most of the action takes place in a single room only heightens the intensity: every phone call, whispered exchange and decision carries the weight of life and death.
At the heart of this maelstrom is Geoffrey Mason, a rookie producer played with understated brilliance by John Magaro. Mason is an ordinary character, a stand-in for all of us who have ever felt overwhelmed by a task far beyond our capabilities. At the start of the crisis, he's just another cog in the machine, working to ensure smooth transitions between events. But when the magnitude of the situation becomes clear, Geoffrey Mason finds himself at the center of a storm, forced to make split-second decisions that will define his career - and may alter the course of the crisis itself. John Magaro's performance is a study in controlled chaos; you can see the weight of each decision etched on his face, his eyes flicking from screen to screen as he tries to balance journalistic responsibility with the primal urge to get the information first.
Opposite Geoffrey Mason, Peter Sarsgaard plays Roone Arledge, the charismatic but calculating head of ABC Sports. Peter Sarsgaard imbues his character with a magnetic presence, portraying him as a man driven by ambition but not devoid of humanity. It is Roone Arledge who insists that ABC Sports retain control of the story rather than hand it over to the news division, a decision that triggers heated debate within the team. Is it about providing viewers with the most accurate and immediate coverage possible, or is it a cynical ploy to boost ratings? Peter Sarsgaard handles this ethical task with aplomb, his calm demeanor in stark contrast to the chaos around him.
And then there's Leonie Benesch, who delivers an outstanding performance as Marianne Gebhardt, the team's German interpreter. Marianne Gebhardt is one of the film's most fascinating characters, not only because of her essential role in translating the critical updates, but also because she represents so much more: the gender dynamics in a male-dominated newsroom, Germany's difficult relationship with its Nazi past, and the quiet strength of someone determined to do the right thing despite being underestimated at every turn. There's a particularly striking moment early in the film, when a colleague asks her to fetch some coffee, and another points out that she's the only person in the room who understands German police updates. It's a small but powerful reminder of how women's contributions are often overlooked, even in the most critical moments.
What sets September 5 apart from other historical dramas is its meticulous attention to detail. The production design is simply stunning, recreating the analog technology of the 1970s with uncanny precision. You can almost feel the hum of the bulky cameras, the weight of the rotary phones and the heat of the monitors glowing dimly in the cramped control room. Fehlbaum's decision to use handheld shooting adds to the film's visceral quality, making you feel like a fly on the wall as the story unfolds. The grainy textures and muted color palette evoke news footage of the time, seamlessly blending archival footage with dramatized scenes.
But the film is not just a technical marvel, it's also a deeply philosophical exploration of the role of the media in times of crisis. When the ABC team considers whether to broadcast certain images or report unverified information, the audience is forced to ask uncomfortable questions about journalistic ethics. Should the execution of a hostage be shown live on television? Do the terrorists' claims deserve to be broadcast? And, perhaps most frighteningly, doesn't broadcasting these events inadvertently give the terrorists exactly what they want? These are not new questions, but Tim Fehlbaum asks them in a way that seems urgent and relevant, especially at a time when social media have blurred the boundaries between reporting and sensationalism.
The film's sound design deserves special mention. From the overlapping voices of reporters screaming into headphones to the eerie hum of static on monitors, every aural detail adds to the atmosphere of controlled chaos. Composer Lorenz Dangel's score is equally effective, remaining mostly in the background but amplifying the tension at key moments. It's the kind of soundtrack that sneaks up on you, increasing your anxiety without ever drawing attention to itself.
Despite its many strengths, September 5 is not without its faults. By focusing so narrowly on the control room, the film sacrifices some of the broader historical and political context that could have added depth to its narrative. While this focus is undoubtedly a stylistic choice, it risks alienating viewers unfamiliar with the details of the Munich massacre or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The absence of these contextual elements gives the film an insular feel, as if it were more concerned with the mechanics of journalism than with the human stakes of the tragedy it covers.
That said, this narrow focus is also the film's greatest strength, allowing it to function as a character-driven thriller rather than a grand historical epic. Tim Fehlbaum's decision to keep the camera inside the control room creates an almost unbearable sense of immediacy, trapping the audience in the same suffocating environment as the characters. It's a bold choice, which pays off handsomely in terms of dramatic tension.
As the film builds towards its inevitable conclusion, the stakes reach new heights. The ABC team's mistakes - such as prematurely announcing that the hostages had been rescued - are a painful reminder of the fallibility of even the best-intentioned journalists. And when Jim McKay (represented by archival footage) utters his famous line, They're all gone, the weight of the tragedy hits like a punch. It's a haunting moment that underscores the immense responsibility of those who document history in real time.
September 5 is more than a historical drama - it's a meditation on the power and danger of narrative. It's a film that forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about the media, its role in shaping our perception of events, and the ethical compromises that often accompany the search for history. It's not a perfect film, but it's an important one, and at a time when the line between information and entertainment has never been so blurred, its message seems more urgent than ever. When the credits roll, we find ourselves reflecting not only on the events of that day, but also on the repercussions that continue to shape our world. September 5 is not just a film about the past, it's a warning for the present and a call to action for the future. It's a gripping, thought-provoking masterpiece that deserves to be seen, debated and remembered.
September 5
Directed by Tim Fehlbaum
Written by Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, Alex David
Produced by Philipp Trauer, Thomas Wöbke, Tim Fehlbaum, Sean Penn, John Ira Palmer, John Wildermuth
Starring Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch, Zinedine Soualem
Cinematography : Markus Förderer
Edited by Hansjörg Weißbrich
Music by Lorenz Dangel
Production companies : BerghausWöbke Filmproduktion, Projected Picture Works, Constantin Film, Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures (United States), Paramount Pictures (France)
Release dates : August 29, 2024 (Venice), December 13, 2024 (United States), February 5, 2025 (France)
Running time : 94 minutes
Seen January 21, 2025 at UGC Danton
Mulder's Mark: