By Lynn Venhaus

“They’re all gone.”

ABC Broadcaster Jim McKay looked into the camera and gave us the horrifying news live from the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The tragic outcome was a gut-punch, for the news a short time earlier had been hopeful. That sickening feeling is authentically duplicated in “September 5,” an intense and riveting film that has meticulously recreated the network’s control room perspective.

As gunfire rang out in the Olympic Village early morning, the ABC Sports crew was thrust into action covering the breaking news as the world’s eyes and ears.

As TV executive Roone Arledge, Peter Sarsgaard leads an exceptional workmanlike ensemble, including John Magaro as producer Geoff Mason, Ben Chaplin as Marv Bader, vice president of ABC Olympics operations, and Leonie Benesch as Marianne Gebhardt, a German translator who is called on to play a bigger role.

Eight members of the Black September militant group scaled a fence, broke into Israeli athletes’ quarters, killed wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossef Romano, and then took nine hostages.

Black September, an affiliate of the Palestine Liberation Organization, demanded the release of 236 prisoners: 234 in Israel and the two leaders of the West German Baader-Meinhof terrorist group.

No one anticipated such an event, nor had anything like this ever happened previously. It was the 10th day of competition, the first Olympics hosted in Germany since the controversial 1936 Berlin games presided over by Adolf Hitler.

The hostage mission failed. About 20 hours after it began, five of the hostage-takers would be dead, along with 11 members of Israel’s Olympic team and a West German policeman.

In retrospect, it is a moment that forever changed media coverage, an impact felt today. It was the first time an act of terror was live on television. Chilling images from that period still burn bright – especially the terrorist in a ski-mask on the balcony.

With its ‘you are there’ point of view, the tension is palpable in this 95-minute masterly constructed film as news and directions shift. Decisions are made in split-second time, and the staff is trying to be responsible while the clock is ticking, rumors swirl, and 900 million people are glued to television screens.

These are sports guys, not experienced journalists, and you see them adapt, with the added concerns of not sensationalizing an already fraught situation and just trying to maintain coverage just staying on the air.

 Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum and his crew have seamlessly blended archival footage with the routines of a darkened media center using analog equipment. At the time, the technology was state-of-the-art, and you see how resourceful they are with the now-primitive pieces.  

Technology aside, the questions facing this operation are the same journalists wrestle with today, and that is what makes this tale so fascinating. Fehlbaum co-wrote the tight script with Moritz Binder, and co-writer Alex David.

The Munich Olympics have been the focus of two previous films, Steven Spielberg’s 2005 historical drama “Munich” and the 1999 Oscar-winning documentary “One Day in September.”

And this one avoids making a political statement, preferring to focus on media, not the politics of Israeli-Palestinian relations. The film was in post-production when Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023.

The control room offers a fresh perspective, and adds to the claustrophobic nature of the story, as well as the balancing act of a group of different individuals needing to set aside their personal views.

Noteworthy are Benjamin Walker as Peter Jennings, the reporter on scene, and Zinedine Soualem as French engineer named Jacques. Jim McKay is only seen in archival footage.

Production designer Julian R. Wagner’s handiwork accented the crowded space, shooting at the Olympic village, which is now a heritage site, also added to the realistic atmosphere, and the taut editing by Hansjörg Weißrich kept the story on track.

Overshadowed by the massacre, the XX Olympiad was also known for Mark Spitz earning seven gold medals for USA, a world record until 2008, and Russian gymnast Olga Korbut became a media star as she won three. Competition had stopped for 34 hours, then resumed.

Winner of the audience award at the St. Louis International Film Festival in November, “September 5” is worth seeking out for its smart, insightful capture of a significant moment in time. It’s obvious that the splendid cast was committed to ‘getting it right,’ and they convey all the dedication, compassion, confusion and drive of the people involved.

“September 5” is a 2024 historical drama directed by Tim Fehlbaum and starring Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, and Leonie Benisch. It is rated R for language, and the runtime is 95 minutes. It is opening in St. Louis theaters Jan. 24. Lynn’s Grade: A

By Alex McPherson

A taut, stressful, and grimly compelling watch with lots on its mind, director Ilker Çatak’s “The Teachers’ Lounge” resonates long after the credits roll as an allegory for society’s messy, complicated realities.

Çatak’s film follows Carla (Leonie Benesch), aka Ms. Nowak, a newly hired sixth grade math and gym teacher at a German middle school who cares deeply for her students’ education and well-being. She’s patient, organized, empathetic, yet naive — confident in her abilities as an instructor while largely ignorant of the paranoia and distrust bubbling within the school’s stark walls. 

Carla tries her best to avoid gossip among the faculty, which currently involves finding out who’s behind a series of petty thefts in the school. Carla’s antagonistic peers (who view Carla as an outsider, she emigrated from Poland) suspect the students. She’s summoned to a room where she, some other teachers, and the principal (Anne-Kathrin Gummich) pressure a couple of sixth-graders from Carla’s classroom into accusing a Muslim classmate as being the perpetrator.

After school officials search wallets in Carla’s classroom, the student is brought in for questioning, and the whole situation reeks of racism. Upset and seeking justice for her class, Carla takes matters into her own hands, setting up a hidden camera in the titular teachers’ lounge to clear up the situation once and for all. Or so she hopes.

Although Carla does, allegedly, locate the culprit, an administrative colleague, her discovery sets off a chain reaction of chaos involving rumors, vengeance, rebellion, and shredding of the already-uneasy bond between students’ families and school authority. Carla, thrown into the center, grapples with her own notions of right vs. wrong and which side to take; her good intentions yielding regrettable outcomes for everyone involved and innocents caught in the crossfire.

Leonie Benesch as new teacher Carla Nowak.

“The Teachers’ Lounge,” then, is quite a harrowing, immersive, and grueling watch, with few optimistic things to say about the human condition. Çatak keeps the tension high from beginning to end, refusing to let viewers catch their breaths as we observe one calamity occur after another — a microcosm of pluralistic society imploding on itself.

Benesch is magnificent, rendering Carla as a multifaceted character that’s at once admirable and frustratingly idealistic. We see Carla’s confidence radiate in the classroom, almost conducting the class like an orchestra in their morning greeting. She then transitions into quiet rage at her colleagues, shifts into determination as she acts on her gut feelings for justice, and crumbles before our eyes as the environment she cares so passionately about seemingly turns against her.

Benesch lends Carla a sense of authentic determination through subtle expressions and gradually evolving body language; Carla refuses to surrender her fight to do “the right thing,” pulled between her ideals and a dangerous atmosphere that she’s unwittingly cranked to a boiling point.

Indeed, Carla’s good intentions only exacerbate pre-existing tensions. Suspicions of prejudice, surveillance, and lack of transparency flood classrooms, parents’ group chats, and the teachers’ lounge itself. Both the school authority and the alleged culprit, struggle for control of the narrative, as does a bright, quiet student in Carla’s class named Oskar (an excellent Leonard Stettnisch), who, driven by love and loyalty, fights for what he believes in — rallying some classmates while alienating others.

Carla tries to restore balance, almost always handicapped by “ethics” that restrict transparency and forces beyond her control and the school walls that can’t be alleviated, no matter how stubbornly (and misguidedly, especially late in the film) she tries to manage them.

It’s all rather agonizing to watch unfold, like a train wreck we’re powerless to stop. “The Teachers’ Lounge” almost never leaves the school’s grounds — trapping us in this miniature society torn between different perspectives and beliefs, while reflecting a situation Carla is powerless to extricate herself from. 

Cinematographer Judith Kaufmann’s camera sticks close to Carla the whole runtime, never leaving her perspective. This in-your-face approach not only provides a suffocating, relentless quality to the film over its 98-minute runtime, but it also feeds into Carla’s burgeoning self-doubt and impulsive actions. Çatak helps viewers feel connected to and empathetic with Carla, observing her as she (sometimes stubbornly) follows morals, while never letting us forget that ambiguity abounds and everyone has different views on the ordeal. 

We observe cause-and-effect in motion from beginning to end, each well-intentioned action precipitating further conflict and confusion, no light at the end of the tunnel to be found. Marvin Miller’s throbbing score, too, accompanies the mayhem perfectly, sometimes mirroring the sensation of breathing, growing more labored and jagged as the action escalates. 

The film’s more stylistic flourishes (thematically resonant yet calling attention to themselves in overly “cinematic” fashion) don’t hit nearly as hard as the moment-to-moment drama, but are minor distractions in an otherwise airtight, wholly involving watch. Ultimately, Çatak’s film reaches outside its immediate setting to comment on the world at large. Unpleasant though it might be, it’s difficult to look away.

“The Teachers’ Lounge” is a 2023 drama from Germany, in English subtitles, directed by Ilker Catak and starring Leonie Benesch, Leonard Stettnisch, and Anne-Kathrin Gummich. It is the German entry as Best International Feature at this year’s Academy Awards. It is Rated PG-13 for strong language and its runtime is 1 hour, 38 minutes. It opened in local theatres on Feb. 9.
Alex’s Grade: A-.

Leonard Stettnisch as Oskar in “The Teacher’s Lounge.”