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What: “One Day in September”

Where: HBO, tonight, 8

This 90-minute Oscar-winning documentary, first shown in Israel and purchased by HBO for $1 million, tells the story of the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. You may think you know the story, but you’ve never seen it told like this.

In the beginning the film, produced by six-time Academy Award winner Arthur Cohn, directed by Kevin Macdonald and narrated by Michael Douglas, is hard to follow. But stick with it. What you’ll learn will amaze you--and anger you.

The key element to the film is that the makers were able to track down the lone surviving Palestinian terrorist, Jamil al-Gashey, who has been in hiding the past 28 years in Africa. Five terrorists were killed at the Munich Airport by sniper fire and three were released by German officials after a Lufthansa jet was hijacked by other Palestinian terrorists in late October 1972. Two of those three were gunned down later by members of the Mossad, the Israeli secret service.

Closed captioning is used for translating the Al-Gashey interview, and he is heavily disguised and his face obscured by shadows. He gives many details, such as the fact that he and a friend attended a couple of volleyball matches the day before the attack on the Olympic Village. He also says he and his compatriots helped some drunk American athletes climb over the fence into the Olympic Village when they entered it just before 5 a.m. on Sept. 5.

In the end, he remains proud of what he did.

Dozens of others were interviewed for this eye-opening documentary, but it is Al-Gashey’s words that will stick with you.