Spielberg risking Israeli anger over Munich tragedy

By Hugh Davies
(Filed: 09/07/2005)

A drama about the 1972 Munich Olympics where Black September Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes is being filmed by Steven Spielberg, who is courting controversy by concentrating on the bloody aftermath as the murders were avenged.

The material is so delicate that the project, which is being filmed in Malta, is shrouded in secrecy.

For while movies like 1977's Raid on Entebbe, starring Peter Finch and Horst Buchholz, portray Israel in a heroic stance, the new picture is about the misgivings of Golda Meir, the then Israeli prime minister, as agents from Mossad tracked down the perpetrators.

The film, with Eric Bana as the lead Israeli assassin, is expected to feature the killing of the Palestinian Mohammad Hamshiri, who answered his phone in Paris to fall victim to a radio-detonated bomb under his desk, and the death of Mohammad Boudia, the director of operations for Black September, in a car bomb explosion.
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