September 5 is a compelling thriller which focuses on the kidnapping and killing of eleven Israeli athletes by the Palestinian Black September terrorist group at the 1972 Munich Olympics. What differentiates the film from a straight retelling is that the principal characters are the ABC TV crew who were there to cover the sport - not this sort of horrific news event (indeed, we don’t see much of the atrocities themselves). The studio team have to deal with the pressure and the emotion of the situation as well as moral dilemmas in terms of what they should or shouldn’t show live on screen.

The Swiss director and co-writer Tim Fehlbaum has created a gripping film with tension as well as emotional nuance and it includes some great performances including John Magaro as the young studio director who has to make some tough decisions despite the uncharted territory for all.

In the Guardian, Peter Bradshaw gave it a four star review: “The story of the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist massacre is retold as a taut, tense thriller. The film leaves it up to us to make what we will of modern parallels. The situation is reinvented as a kind of media procedural, shown purely from the viewpoint of ABC TV’s sports division, who from their cramped, claustrophobic gallery found themselves in sole charge of broadcasting the events live to the world.”

September 5 is 1 hour 35 minutes long, plus an interval.