Directed by: Jake Paltrow
Written by: Jake Paltrow and Tom Shoval
Starring: Noam Ovadia, Yoav Levi, Tom Hagi, Tzhai Grad, and Joy Rieger
Runtime: 105 minutes
‘June Zero’ has value and shares unique perspectives.
Adolf Eichmann.
He was a Nazi officer and one of the top organizers of the party’s Final Solution to exterminate the Jewish population. Years after WWII’s end, Israeli agents apprehended Eichmann in Argentina and brought him to trial in 1961.
Director/co-writer Jake Paltrow’s “June Zero” is set during this time and place. However, rather than covering intricate details about Eichmann’s court case, the film focuses much of its 105-minute runtime on three ordinary individuals in three different real-life narratives that, tangentially, are connected to the man.
Innocently connected.
Actually, “June Zero” is about – spoiler alert - Eichmann’s execution. Paltrow and co-writer Tom Shoval should be applauded for taking a unique approach in covering such a grim slice of history. Paltrow and Shoval explore how Eichmann affected the three aforementioned human beings, but cinematically, the audience is left with mixed results.
Well, a little better than mixed.
David (Noam Ovadia), a 13-year-old Libyan raised in Israel, is experiencing mixed results in life. He regularly shoplifts and sometimes drags his little brother into trouble. His father knows David’s shaky pastimes, so he scores him a job with a small factory, one that builds ovens, so his son will spend hours working rather than run around town with hijinks on his mind. The enterprising young man earns favorable status with the owner, Zebco (Tzahi Grad). Still, David and Zebco earn some tense moments, and their heritage differences and vast age disparity highlight David’s vulnerability in a new country and as the only child on-site.
Noam and Tzahi deliver convincing performances as this odd couple, and they both become tied to Eichmann through the factory’s chief product, even though this Eichmann connection isn’t as engaging as David’s journey of hopeful reform.
Haim (Yoav Levi) is a corrections officer who works at a prison near the factory. He’s usually concerned with reform, however, this middle-aged, by-the-book guard is entirely consumed with one prisoner, Adolf Eichmann. This Nazi officer waits for his likely execution within the four concrete walls of this facility, and the stress of his presence has Haim and almost everyone else on edge. Paltrow captures Eichmann’s everyday gestures, like sleeping or receiving a haircut, with gravitas and fear. We never see Eichmann’s entire face, which emits sickening-mysterious vibes.
David’s and Haim’s yarns are strung together with the one shared thread, but Micha’s (Tom Hagi) tale is not.
Without warning, the film whisks us to Poland, and Micha is a tour guide for the remains of a WWII Jewish ghetto. He recounts his time in this particular ghetto and later reveals a link to Eichmann. Micha’s heartfelt screentime resonates, but the sudden movement across the continent and no apparent tie to David and Haim is puzzling. The screenplay’s shift feels random, as if Micha’s story belongs in an entirely different film, which throws off the previous rhythms with David and Haim.
“June Zero” breaks its own rules, like starting a Scrabble game and announcing after 45 minutes that every vowel played is worth 10 points…for the next 20 minutes only.
Otherwise, the film doesn’t play around with communicating ways that the Nazi Party impacted these three people, whether a boy finds an unlikely source of employment, a corrections officer feels trauma over an unwanted guest, or a new guide recalls his distressful childhood.
Rather than take big swings at massive, nightmarish blows that impacted the globe, Paltrow dramatically reduces the scope, 16 years after WWII’s end. He skillfully films in intimate, personal spaces and introduces intriguing characters, but the movie is – unfortunately – hampered by a couple of baffling editing and narrative choices, including an odd denouement.
Still, “June Zero” has value and shares unique perspectives.
Jeff’s ranking
2.5/4 stars
