September 5
The decisive moment that forever changed media coverage and continues to impact live news today.
Set during the 1972 Munich Olympics, the film follows an American Sports broadcasting team that quickly adapted from sports reporting to live coverage of the Israeli athletes taken hostage. Through this lens, “September 5” provides a powerful new perspective on the live broadcast seen globally by an estimated one billion people at the time.
At the heart of the story is Geoff, a young and ambitious producer striving to prove himself to his boss, the legendary TV executive Roone Arledge. Together with Marianne, a German interpreter, Geoff unexpectedly takes the helm of the live coverage. As narratives shift, time ticks away, and conflicting rumours spread, with the hostages’ lives hanging in the balance, Geoff grapples with tough decisions while confronting his own moral compass. How do you cover a situation like this if what the perpetrators want is the spotlight you give?
Swiss filmmaker Tim Fehlbaum’s thriller allows us to experience the dramatic hostage-taking through the eyes of the journalists. The film raises questions of media ethics. Whose story is it when the media report live on terror – that of the broadcaster or that of the terrorists?
Tim Fehlbaum (1982) is a director and writer born in Basel, Switzerland. He began studying directing at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF) in 2002 and graduated seven years later. During his time at the HFF, he made several short films, music videos and worked as a cameraman on documentaries. His first feature film, the post-apocalyptic thriller “Hell” (2011), won the Directing Award at the 2011 Munich Film Festival and was screened at the Locarno Film Festival. It was also released in German cinemas and was nominated in 5 categories at the 2012 German Film Awards. His second feature film, the apocalyptic thriller “Tides”, premiered at the Berlinale in 2021 and also won several awards (including 4 German Film Awards).
Hell (2011), The Colony (Koloonia, 2021), September 5 (2024)
