September 5 | 2024
Jacques Lesgardes (Zinedine Soualem), Marianne Gebhard (Leonie Benesch), Geoff Mason (John Magaro), Carter (Marcus Rutherford) star in Paramount Pictures’ “SEPTEMBER 5.”
Movies do not exist in a vacuum. They are not just works of art, they exist as a part of the culture that gave birth to them, intrinsically tied to the time and place in which they are made. Some are timeless, resonating beyond the conditions that created them, but it is often impossible to separate them from those conditions, because it not only helps us understand the film, it provides a lens through which to understand the history of their time. What were people thinking, feeling, doing at this moment in time that made this film what it is?
In that spirit, it is all but impossible to divorce Tim Fehlbaum's September 5 from the ongoing genocide being committed against Palestinians by Israel - a genocide that turned into a regional conflict last year after the events of October 7. September 5 attempts to grapple with another, similar event - the attacks on the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, through the eyes of the ABC News team who reported on it live from the ground. But in watching another situation in which Israelis are taken hostage and killed by Palestinians, one has to ask - why this story, and why now?
The film itself is a fairly solid newsroom procedural - a fly-on-the-wall look at journalists responding to a historic event in real time, constantly shifting and adapting to new information and making split-second decisions to make sure the story is delivered as quickly and accurately as possible. It's a bit like Spotlight for TV news - sober, straightforward, and tautly directed. In that spirit, it is clearly trying to maintain a kind of political neutrality, which is a trap modern news often falls into, because that neutrality is itself political.
By choosing to tell this story now, in which Palestinians are labeled terrorists and Israelis once again seen as passive victims, divorced of the historical context of the conflict, once can only assess it in relation to the current genocide, and it absolutely aligns itself with Zionist doctrine. It may not be the film's focus, but it cannot escape it, and no amount of competently executed drama can cover it up. That September 5 is actually a compelling film is almost beside the point as it seems to exist solely to help launder Israel's reputation at a time when it would prefer to distract from its crimes and paint itself as the victim.
Don't fall for it.
