When writer and director Tim Fehlbaum set out to create a film about the Munich massacre—the terrorist attack on the Israeli delegation during the 1972 Summer Olympics—he couldn’t have anticipated how timely and controversial the movie would become.

September 5, a Golden Globe-nominated film that opened nationwide on January 17  recounts ABC News’s behind-the-scenes coverage of the unfolding tragedy and their groundbreaking decision to broadcast the events live to a worldwide audience of over 900 million viewers.

In the midst of ABC’s Olympic coverage on September 5, the newsroom learned that the Palestinian terror group Black September had infiltrated the Olympic Village, targeting Israeli athletes and coaches. The attackers killed wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossef Romano, and they took nine others hostage: David Berger, an American-Israeli weightlifter; Ze’ev Friedman, another weightlifter; wrestlers Eliezer Halfin and Mark Slavin; Yakov Springer, a weightlifting judge; Andre Spitzer, a fencing coach; Amitzur Shapira, a track and field coach; Kehat Shorr, a shooting coach; and Yossef Gutfreund, a wrestling referee.

Tragically, all nine remaining hostages were killed during a botched rescue attempt, marking one of the darkest chapters in Olympic history.

Premiering first at film festivals about a year after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the film—focused largely on the tensions and decisions within the newsroom—now carries added significance. However, it has also sparked anti-Israel sentiment at some film festivals and protests at a theater chain.

The movies had already finished the editing process when October 7 happened, Fehlbaum, 43, said in an interview. “That escalated the topic of antisemitism again, and of course, it also has an influence on how people will perceive the film.”

Starring Peter Sarsgaard as Roone Arledge, president of ABC Sports, and Jewish actor John Magaro as Geoffrey Mason, head of the ABC control room in Munich, September 5 is told from the perspective of the television studio. The narrative follows the ABC team as they make the pivotal decision to shift from Olympic coverage to reporting on the terrorist attack and hostage crisis.

To bring the story to life, the Swiss director delved deeply into the events of that fateful day in Germany, including talking directly with the real-life Geoffrey Mason. “Before even writing the very first word, we did as much research as possible,” he said.

Since this marked the first time a terrorist event was broadcast live on television, “we were very much interested in that aspect, the unprecedented situation that the media faced,” said Fehlbaum.

In addition to the horrors of witnessing a terrorist attack, the film explores the ethical dilemmas faced by the newsroom in deciding whether to broadcast it to millions. One of the most significant real-time challenges shown is ABC’s inadvertent sharing of law enforcement plans with the terrorists—who were believed to have access to the live broadcast from within the Olympic Village—potentially jeopardizing the rescue mission.

“At its core, this is a film about journalists and the moral and ethical decisions that needed to be made in the moment when their coverage shifted from sports reporting to a live terrorist attack,” said Fehlbaum, who also co-produced the film. “We wanted to also make the audience reflect on questions about our media environment and how we inform ourselves about tragedies of this nature.”

In order to create a sense of the newsroom, the production team used authentic equipment from the era, sourced from old television stations and collectors, to meticulously recreate the analog control-room setup. The film also integrates actual footage broadcast by ABC on that day.

The attack, Fehlbaum acknowledged, was a tragic event with “profound political implications,” as well as significant consequences for the evolution of live news coverage.

The 1972 Olympics marked the first games held on German soil since the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics, which the Nazi party had used as a platform for fascist propaganda. In 1972, “Germany had set up this massive media apparatus, with cameras everywhere, because they had an agenda,” Fehlbaum explained. “They wanted to project the image of a completely new Germany.”

These games were also the first to be meticulously designed for optimal television viewing and the first to be broadcast internationally live via satellite.

In the movie, German translator Marianne Gebhardt, portrayed by actor Leonie Benesch, is present in the media control room as the hostage crisis unfolds. She serves as a surrogate of sorts for the Germans at that time, representing a country eager to showcase a more open and liberal image to the world.

“I think we shouldn’t forget how close that was to World War II,” said Fehlbaum. His Gebhard “represented the new generation of Germany. I think an interesting thing about this movie is that even before those tragic events happened, this Olympics was a turning point in media history.”

The movie, which will open in Israel on January 27, has been warmly received during awards season. In addition to earning a Golden Globe nomination, it was a special presentation highlight at the Palm Springs Film Festival in early January.

However, not all film festivals have been as welcoming. In September, the Toronto International Film Festival declined to include September 5 in its lineup. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the decision stemmed from concerns that the film might spark controversy related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I don’t know why they rejected the film,” Fehlbaum said. “The festival director was really supportive of our initial screening.”

More recently, The Forward reported that employees at several New York City locations of Alamo Drafthouse, a dine-in theater franchise, petitioned the company to cancel showings of the film. The petition labeled it “Zionist propaganda” and criticized “Alamo’s willingness to profit off the genocide in Palestine.” As of the publication of this article, Alamo is still showing the movie in its New York City theaters.

Despite the detractors, Fehlbaum hopes the movie will prompt audiences to reflect on today’s media consumption and the rapid pace of the news cycle.

I want viewers to “take a step back and see, back then, how slow it still was,” he said. “But also bigger ethical questions—can and should we show violence on television? How fast do we let out the news before it’s confirmed?”

Questions, he added, that remain just as relevant today.

---