Global Screen has boarded “Munich ’72,” a documentary series about the attack perpetrated by a Palestinian militant organization at the Munich games Olympic Village in 1972.
“Munich ’72” is being directed by Roman Shumunov, the award-winning Israeli director of “Back to Chernobyl” and “Babylon Dreamers.” It is produced by Ronen Machlis-Balzam (“Berenshtein”) at the well-established banner Tadmor Entertainment for Israel’s Channel 8, which is a co-producer.
The three-parter will be the first Israeli series to chronicle the events of Sept. 5, 1972, when a Palestinian group known as Black September stormed the Olympic Village and abducted members of the Israeli Olympic team. The ensuing political debacle resulted in a botched rescue operation that ended with all 11 hostages getting killed.
Blending documentary and fiction, the series is told through interviews with athletes, security personnel, high-ranking politicians and experts. Thanks to newly declassified protocols, the series will also reveal conversations from the Israeli cabinet during the crisis, as well as unseen German documents divulging discussions that took place in the German crisis room where the event was managed.
Shumunov said the documentary “will shed new light on the tragic events of the Munich Olympics, which continue to cast a shadow upon us to this day.”
“Munich ’72” will also be available as a feature-length theatrical film.
“We are highly committed and honored to contribute to this documentary as co-producers and engage people in conversation about the Munich attack at the Olympic Games ahead of the 50th anniversary in September 2022,” said Julia Weber, head of international sales and acquisitions at Global Screen.
“For the first time, this terrible chain of events and failures in Germany at the time, will be told from an Israeli perspective, including newly revealed material reflecting the historical background and different correlations of the political groups involved,” added Weber.
“The events of the Munich massacre, in which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict erupted onto a global stage, also tell the story of the Jewish and German nations, two nations struggling to leave the events of the Second World War behind them only to be met with another tragedy,” Global Screen said in a statement.