Karlovy Vary Review: Jake Paltrow’s ‘June Zero’
04.07.2022 - 21:51
/ deadline.com
Jake Paltrow directs and co-writes June Zero, an unusual account of the death of Adolf Eichmann that’s screening at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Opening immediately after the verdict of his trial, it shows the impact of the Holocaust criminal’s 1962 execution on three very different characters: a boy, a prison guard and a police investigative officer. Shot on super-16mm in Israel and Ukraine, it’s Paltrow’s first foreign-language production after features including The Good Night and Young Ones.
The decision to use the Hebrew language was fueled by Paltrow’s co-writer Tom Shoval, and it gives the film an authentic flavor. The choice to open it with an adolescent boy, David, adds a sense of nostalgia and warmth that might seem surprising given the subject matter.
Newcomer Noam Ovadia puts in a charming performance as the lively young Libyan who gains work at an oven factory in Israel, principally because he’s small enough to clean the ovens. After opportunistically stealing a gold watch belonging to his boss, he overhears a private conversation that touches on world events: the factory is to be commissioned to make a crematorium for Eichmann’s body. The fact that cremation isn’t usual in Israeli culture enhances the workers’ fascination with this event, something they both take pride in and feel queasy about.
David’s story is the most engaging of the three, filled with simple but vivid details about his moral dilemmas and his desire to belong in a new culture. Its tone is quite distinct from that of Haim (Yoav Levy), Eichmann’s main prison guard, whom we follow from the factory to the prison, where he guards one of the most hated men in the country.
A few details here engage. Haim must prevent any
The website popstar.one is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can
send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.