The Palestinian terrorist group Black September broke into the Olympic village of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich and took eleven Israeli athletes hostage. The world watched it all unfold live on TV, ending in the deaths of the athletes and the terrorists. After Munich (2019) documentary begins with a recounting of the history but the focus is not on the details of the Munich Massacre (well covered in Kevin MacDonald's 1999 documentary One Day on September) or the response by Israel's Mossad. Canadian filmmaker Francine Zuckerman instead offers the stories of four women—a fellow athlete, a widow, and two Mossad agents—whose lives were forever changed by the. Ankie Spitzer, the wife of Israeli Olympic athlete Andre Spitzer, was in Denmark when her husband was taken hostage and she watched the horror unfold on TV. She has since devoted herself to memorializing the eleven athletes and to covering the Gaza strip as a correspondent for Dutch and Belgian television.
Sprinter Esther Roth-Shahamorov, who held the Israeli record for the 100 yard dash, witnessed the events firsthand. She returned in four year to honor the murdered athletes and coached the next generations of female athletes, including subsequent Olympic runners. Sylvia Rafael was a high ranking Mossad agent who, working under the cover of a Canadian photographer, was sent to track down and kill Ali Hassan Salameh, the head of Black September. Marianne Gladnikoff, a newly recruited Mossad agent, was part of her team in Lilyhammer, where they were both apprehended and imprisoned after assassinating the wrong man. Each woman was impacted differently by the events and Zuckerman follows their lives over forty-plus years since the attack, as Spitzer and Roth-Shahamorov remained active and in the spotlight and Rafael and Gladnikoff, the two agents, retreated from it. While Gladnikoff shares her regret and guilt with the camera, Rafael retreated completely; she was not interviewed for the film and is represented by an actress in dramatic recreations.
The film also reminds viewers that such a terrorist action, targeting a sporting event covered live on TV, was unprecedented and changed the "rules" of modern terrorism. Zuckerman's documentary is interesting without being particularly compelling or forceful. The focus on the effects of terrorism through personal journeys of those directly affected, in particular the decisions to choose positive action over retribution and vengeance, is a welcome change from the usual presentation of violent events. But the film lacks a strong narrative vision and tends to lose the stories of the two former agents, who left that world behind after serving their sentences. Still, it is a potent portrait of the scars left behind and the various ways the women chose to heal. Not rated, features descriptions of violence and some disturbing news footage but no explicit imagery or language. A strong option purchase. Aud: H, C, P.