I wish I could show this movie to the narrow-minded people whom I've heard over the years claiming that documentaries were boring. Watching this constantly engaging documentary recapitulating the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage situation, one understands how its director made such an immediately successful transition into fiction film-making with The Last King of Scotland (2006). Macdonald builds his documentaries like fiction films, using many conventions of the latter even if there are many filmed interviews, which in turn remind us that we are watching the former. In his beautifully shot Touching the Void (2003), most of the films is made-up of completely re-enacted footage depicting actors going through the tribulations detailed by the two protagonists' real-voice narrations, the audience obliged to take their words for truth, having no other record of the actual incident. In September, the situation is completely reversed. The only new footage includes the interviewed segments and inserts of the deceased athlete's families, the bulk of the film consisting of stock news footage covering the incident at the time. The entire event is recreated through a dynamic selection of shots interspersed with news casters and most notably the testimony of the only surviving terrorist speaking for the first time about the horrible ordeal. Whether the film's gripping rhythm is due to its already heated topic and themes or the hand behind its conception is perhaps arguable. What is not, however, is my confidence in daring anybody to find this film boring.
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