 UK, 1999
94 minutes.
Directed by Kevin Macdonald
Produced by Arthur Cohn and John Battsek
Cinematography: Alwin Kuchler & Neve Cunningham
Editor: Justine Wright
Music: Alex Heffes
Special stills photography: Raymond E. Depardon
Narrator: Michael Douglas 
A Sony Pictures Classics release
Winner of this year's Academy Award for
Best Documentary Feature.
 The film is a riveting account of the horrifying events
that transpired at the Munich Olympics on September 5, 1972. The 1972 Olympic Games, held in Munich, Germany, were to be the "Olympics of Peace and Joy," forever erasing the memory of the Nazi-controlled Berlin games of 1936. But a combination of lax security -- no armed police were allowed at any of the Olympic sites -- and profound
unpreparedness led to 21 hours of terror and death. As the world looked on in
disbelief, an extreme separatist group of Palestinians calling themselves
"Black September" entered the sleeping quarters of the Israeli athletes
and their coaches (after gaining access to the Olympic Village by an unsuspecting,
carousing group of American athletes), killing some and holding
the rest hostage. Their demand: that Israel release 236 political prisoners
or the hostages would be executed at noon.
With narration by Michael Douglas, extraordinary archival
footage, and interviews with Israeli and German officials, director
Macdonald reveals the dramatic, astonishing facts of what occurred on that
one day in September. And in an unprecedented coup, the filmmakers interview
the only surviving member of the "Black September" group, living
in perpetual hiding somewhere in Africa.
“Harrowing and horrifying... murderously suspenseful...
a devastating emotional experience.”
– Washington Post
“Startlingly original. A brilliant movie.”
– Sight and Sound |
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