Paramount Pictures’ drama September 5, co-written and directed by Swiss filmmaker Tim Fehlbaum, takes a detailed look at the events of September 5, 1972, when the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany were disrupted by a terrorist action as a Palestinian group kidnapped the Israeli athletes, leading to a 24-hour nightmare. On hand from the United States were the ABC Sports team, who suddenly had to shift their coverage to keep the world informed about what was happening.
The ensemble piece is mostly focused on four primary actors – John Magaro from 2023’s Past Lives, playing television director Geoffrey Mason, Peter Sarsgaard as ABC Sports President Roone Arledge,
Ben Chaplin as Marvin Bader, and German actress Leonie Benesch as translator Marianne Gebhardt, who is beneficial in keeping the rest of the team informed.
Benesh received a lot of attention a few years back as the lead in the German Oscar-nominated film, The Teachers’ Lounge, but an even earlier film for her was Michael Haneke’s two-time Oscar nominee, The White Ribbon in 2009.
Chaplin is a 30-year acting veteran who appeared in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1998) and The New World (2005) with his most prominent roles being in the early ‘00s, starring with Sandra Bullock in Murder By Numbers and with Nicole Kidman in Birthday Girl. Although Chaplin has remained actively working, September 5 is his most prominent role in an American release in quite some time.
Cinema Daily US had a chance to speak separately with Ms. Benesch and Mr. Chaplin, the former interview you can watch above and the latter below.
September 5 opens nationwide on January 17, and you can watch our previous interview with director Tim Fehlbaum and producer John Palmer here. You can also read Karen Benardello’s review of the movie here.
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Director: Tim Fehlbaum
Screenwriter: Tim Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder, Alex David
Cast: John Magaro, Peter Sarsgaard, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch, Zinedine Soualem, Benjamin Walker,
Producer: Philipp Trauer, Thomas Wöbke, Mark Nolting, Sean Penn, John Ira Palmer, John Wildermuth
Production Co: BerghausWöbke Filmproduktion, Projected Picture Works, Constantin Film, Edgar Reitz Filmstiftung
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Rating: R (Language)
Genre: Drama
Language: English, German
Release Date (Theaters): December 13, 2024 (limited)
Runtime: 1 hour, 31 minutes
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You can watch the trailer below: