FILM OF THE WEEK: September 5 - by Roe McDermott

The past year has showed us not only the divisive nature and terrifying power of one-sided, profit-driven media - which succeeded in indoctrinating Trump supporters in the States - but the insidious way that bias sneaks into even “respectable” news media in the coverage of the genocide in Palestine.

The use of the passive voice and language of agency and adulthood has been weaponised, as Israeli people are “murdered”, but Palestinians are “killed”. In addition, Palestinian children and teenagers are frequently referred to just as “people” or even “adults”, to hide the vulnerability and innocence of the thousands of people viciously and mercilessly attacked.

The role and responsibility of media has rarely felt more important and more compromised. In September 5, Tim Fehlbaum looks to history to reflect on the issues facing news media today, with the story focusing on the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and its lasting impact on broadcast journalism.

The film follows ABC’s news team as they are abruptly pulled from covering sporting triumphs, in order to report on the chaos of a live hostage crisis, involving Israeli athletes and the Palestinian militant group Black September. As events spiral, ABC’s groundbreaking live reporting brings the unfolding horror into homes across the world, forever changing the landscape of televised news.

But September 5 goes beyond the spectacle, probing the ethical faultlines of real-time journalism, where the duty to inform collides with the risk of sensationalising tragedy. As a team of sports broadcasters grapple with how to cover breaking news on a worldwide stage, they often stumble and make dangerous errors, some of which cannot be walked back.

Through tense newsroom confrontations and high-stakes moral dilemmas, the film interrogates the power of the press, its responsibilities, and the role it plays in shaping collective memory.

With such big, ethical questions on the line, the film needs to have strong characters to ground the film and create a sense of emotional connection, and the ensemble cast are glorious. John Magaro delivers a compelling performance as ABC News producer Geoffrey Mason, the emotional and narrative core.

He finds himself caught between the immediate pressures of his on-site superior and the high-powered executives and competitors back home, making split-second decisions that could determine life and death. Every moment he’s on-screen pulses with the weight of his responsibilities, his dread of making a devastating mistake apparent even in his rare moments of respite.

Mason also serves as a moral compass of sorts, fielding ethical concerns and strategic suggestions from his colleagues. Magaro, so good at playing a smart everyman, feels both competent and anxious, well-intentioned yet clumsy, and portrays Mason’s fear and desire to get it right perfectly.

A significant part of the realism stems from Mason’s charged interactions with two key team members. One is junior crewmember Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), a German translator thrust into the action, suffering microaggressions and sexism as she’s asked to make coffee and also sometimes becoming a scapegoat for her country’s history.

Benesch, so brilliant in the series Babylon Berlin, her role allowing the film to explore Germany’s cultural guilt, and fear of having its first globally witnessed event after WWII include the kidnap and murder of Israeli people. It’s a fascinating and important thread that holds even more resonance now, when considering Germany’s refusal to protect Palestinians.

Mason and Marianne both clash with operations manager Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), a Jewish New Yorker personally affected by the event’s location. With his family history scarred by the Holocaust, Bader’s investment in the unfolding crisis is deeply personal. The exchanges between these three characters are sharply written and performed, offering a nuanced exploration of their varied perspectives.

A paygrade higher is Peter Sarsgaard, always brilliant, and here playing renowned TV producer Roone Arledge, who fought for his sports division to cover the breaking story, refusing to let ABC take over remotely from the US studio. The film incorporates authentic footage, including broadcasts featuring TV anchor Jim McKay, immersing viewers in the era’s analogue technology.

Fehlbaum highlights the newsroom’s reliance on rotary phones, physical letterboards for ‘Breaking News’ banners, and massive, cumbersome TV cameras weighing hundreds of pounds. These bulky, wired contraptions serve as a stark contrast to today’s smartphone era, where limitless footage can be streamed instantly. The physical challenges facing the team add another layer of tension, as film has to be smuggled into the closed-down Olympic village, while wired cameras limit filming.

The analogue tech is gorgeous in its detail, cinematographer Markus Forderer’s handheld camera work adding a sense of immediacy. Shot long before the recent wave of violence against Palestine, the film doesn’t delve too much into specific politics or history. Debates over whether Black September should be called “terrorists” feel both charged and broadly applicable to many political conflicts.

This apoliticism may feel slightly hollow to some, but it also allows us to understand the evolution of news broadly – and the reality of where we have ended up is grim.

However, as the team realise that their live broadcast may be endangering the hostages and they rush to broadcast some “facts”, the question of whether they are providing information or sensationalist entertainment begins to get muddy.

As the sports reporters fumble their coverage and tensions rise, the film raises a crucial question: is the rush to deliver breaking news always responsible - or even essential?

Intelligent, gripping and beautifully acted, September 5 is powerful viewing.

In cinemas now. Watch the trailer below: