September 5 review: ‘superbly constructed account of the 1972 atrocity’

 There is room too for showing how the world showed little interest in the fate of the Israeli hostages by allowing the Games to continue during the crisis. No change there, then

Meanwhile, up-and-coming producer Geoff (John Magaro), who has been vouched for by Marvin, is on shift when shots are heard in the Olympic village, and the world changes.

The deservedly Oscar-nominated screenplay by Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum and co-writer Moritz Binder keeps the plot focused on the pressures of journalism and high-stakes decisions, such as when, to the horror of the team in the control room, they discover the terrorists are viewing their live coverage of armed police taking up positions outside the Israeli team’s accommodation.

Leonie Benesch as German interpreter Marianne[Missing Credit]

The analogue technology of the period is lovingly recreated as is that irresistible Seventies period aesthetic. But there is also room to note German hopes that the Olympics would reset the country’s reputation after the Second World War, a sentiment personified by German interpreter Marianne (an excellent Leonie Benesch) of whom Jewish Marvin can’t help but ask if her parents were still alive. “Don’t tell me, they didn’t know either,” he says. “I am not my parents,” she replies.

Every exchange of dialogue has an intensity about it. There is room too for showing how the world showed little interest in the fate of the Israeli hostages by allowing the Games to continue during the crisis. No change there, then.

Classification: 15

★★★★★