“September 5” is the story of a small group of ABC television sports journalists who were covering the 1972 Munich Olympics when Baader-Meinhof terrorists attacked Israeli athletes. The ABC team, the only team with cameras inside the Olympic Village, immediately switched to covering the breaking news. In an interview, director/co-screenwriter Tim Fehlbaum and actors Ben Chaplin (who plays the ABC producer) and Leonie Benes (who plays the German translator) talked about the differences in technology and journalism since 1972. Talked about why Chaplin’s character is a moral compass, the stories and interview questions female journalists keep asking.
To me, this seems to be a quintessential American story. Yet I can’t help but notice that I’m the only American in this room. What does your perspective bring to this story?
Tim Fehlbaum: When we are in Germany, Germans say that this film does not look German. Which is a compliment. Of course, we all admire American cinema. Perhaps interestingly, this was the same group of nationalities as it was in real life. We were shooting in Munich. It was established in Munich. There were a lot of people from Munich in it. And we had the character of Marianne, who is from Germany. But there were many international artists in our team. Geoffrey Mason [played by John Magaro in the film] Told us ABC has hired an international crew. There were not only Americans in the crew. So that’s kind of reflected in our artists. And I think that makes a difference.
Ben Chaplin: I think a lot of it takes an outsider’s perspective. For example, I would love to point out that one of the best films ever made, in my opinion the best film ever made about a particular part of time in German history, is a UK film, ” Area of Interest “When I saw it, I sat there and wondered why this movie didn’t come out of Germany. But sometimes an outsider’s perspective is really helpful when it comes to telling a story about something. It happens to the people of Mars. viewpoint. I think the best adaptation of Jane Austen is “Clueless.” I think it’s as funny as Jane Austen was supposed to be.
Today’s audience will be surprised by the difference in technology and the difference in journalistic standards. Which has changed more dramatically?
Leonie Benes: They are connected. I never had a TV, and I don’t really watch that kind of thing, but as far as I understand, the whole idea of 24-hour news and that awesome word infotainment has made a difference. Journalists are under a lot of pressure to provide instant updates without having time to investigate, and the crossover of information and entertainment means that especially in the US, it is very difficult to find a story that clearly explains what happened as opposed to a crazy story. Does it. Will make you very emotional. He is not particularly helpful. It has also spread globally with the influence of social media.
TF: Technology is the scary and sad part. It’s grown so fast that you and I can broadcast here, you can’t control it anymore. The technology has clearly changed but the big questions have not. They are still exactly the same, with confirmed sources and the pressure of being first without making a mistake. And what do we show when it comes to violence? When are we telling the story and when do we become part of that story which makes it more dangerous? What’s interesting about “September 5” is that we’re telling it from the perspective of sports broadcasters who are suddenly grappling with these questions. A few hours earlier they were reporting on Mark Spitz’s seventh gold medal.
Leonie, I want to ask about your character, the only German and the only woman working at ABC. She plays a large narrative role as well as a large emotional role in the story. It all comes together in a scene where a man asks her to get him coffee, not only showing condescension but also running the only person who can translate what they’re reporting out of the room.
LB: First of all, I’d love to point out that with just one exception, the only reporters who asked me about that scene were women, and I think that’s very telling. It is very interesting that only one male journalist talked about that scene.
BC: There haven’t been that many male journalists!
LB: [Laughs] Go, Ben! Bring us some coffee!
go leave.
BC: I would do it happily, happily.
LB: It’s very beautiful, isn’t it? [screenwriters] Written by Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum and Alex David. In that heavily male-dominated world, then writing a fully developed three-dimensional female character, who at times becomes the hero. She saves the day, and she has nice moments and then feminist punchlines, and all that, which is just a gift to play. I was very happy to read it and even more happy to play it. I am very grateful.
Ben, your character is assessing and making a lot of decisions very quickly.
BC: He is in more of an advisory capacity than making decisions and questioning the decisions being made. I thought what the script did was clever in terms of my character Marvin, the guy who does the logistics planning. So it is logical that he would be the one who can keep his eye on potential problems before anyone else. Their job was to identify potential problems and mistakes in the future. This helps the audience understand the stakes and risks.
TF: We described him as a moral compass.
I know you did a lot of research, including interviews with many of the people featured in the film. What did you discover that surprised you?
TF: There were many things. But I didn’t realize what an important moment that was in the history of media. I wanted to learn about that era. This was a turning point even before the terrorist attack took place. The 1972 Olympics were a turning point in media history, as Germany wanted to send a message with the first Olympics on German soil since 1936, which was misused for fascist propaganda. Germany wanted to send a new image to the world. That’s why they had no armed police inside the Olympic village. They did not want bad company.
Furthermore, for the first time, venues were planned for optimal TV coverage and events could be broadcast live around the world. And then suddenly this whole system shifted from reporting on the Olympics to reporting on the crisis. It was the first time that there were actually live images of such a crisis. There were several TV stations at the Olympic site that day, but ABC was the only station that had live cameras. It was on the hill just opposite the exit of his studio. He had this idea: “Why don’t we take out one of our cameras and point it at the building where this is going on?”