When a terrorist attack becomes a movie: “September 5”
Published: Thursday, Aug 29th 2024, 21:20
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On September 5, 1972, the world watched the terror. On this day, Palestinian assassins took Israeli athletes hostage during the Olympic Games in Munich. The television station ABC Sports broadcast the hostage-taking live for around 21 hours. The film "September 5", starring Leonie Benesch ("Das Lehrerzimmer"), tells the story of what it was like for the journalists involved.
"September 5" by Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum is a gripping thriller about the power of images. It was "the first time that an act of terrorism was broadcast live around the world", according to the film, which premiered in Venice. "900 million people watched."
This gave the journalists involved a very special responsibility. But they hardly had time to think about it during the hectic events.
The work takes place entirely in the TV studio of US broadcaster ABC Sports, which was set up right next to the Olympic village at the time. Against the resistance of its own news department, the TV team reported live on the events, showing images of the assassins, the negotiating police officers in front of the entrances to the Olympic Village, and finally shots fired in the distance during the escalating hostage situation.
"The audience should experience the frenzy of live reporting with the characters, should be there when moral decisions always have to be made against a ticking clock," describes director Fehlbaum.
He has succeeded. In "September 5", the viewer breathlessly follows the unfolding events and the difficult moral questions that arise for the station's employees.
Should you show someone being shot in a live broadcast?
Shortly after 4 a.m., interpreter Marianne (Benesch) and a few other studio employees hear gunshots. It doesn't take long for rumors of a hostage situation to leak out. With Marianne's help, young producer Geoff (John Magaro) unexpectedly takes over the live broadcast. After the hostage-takers set an ultimatum for their targets, time is running out. Unconfirmed rumors are doing the rounds and the hostages' lives are at stake.
Should we show someone being shot in a live broadcast? Are the television images not giving the perpetrators the stage they want? Or are we even giving them access to information that they would not have had without the television broadcast? And how thoroughly do you have to check sources when time is racing? Questions like these are just as relevant today as they were back then. Not all of the team's decisions will prove to be correct in retrospect.
One cameraman hides in the Olympic village, another disguises himself as an athlete and smuggles camera reels in and out of the village. The film uses historical footage from ABC that was shown on television at the time.
Individual scenes are recreated: The face of a masked assassin looking out of the window. Police officers disguised as cooks failing to gain entry to the Olympic apartments.
And the devastating mistakes made by the security authorities are a recurring theme. They are still being dealt with today.
©Keystone/SDA
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