Karlovy Vary review: “June Zero” by Jake Paltrow

Jake Paltrow is the director and co-writer June zeroThe unusual story of Adolf Eichmann’s death, shown at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

It begins immediately after the court verdict and shows the impact of a Holocaust perpetrator’s execution in 1962 on three very different characters: a boy, a prison guard and a police investigator. Shot on Super 16mm in Israel and Ukraine, this is Paltrow’s first foreign language work, which he includes Good night Y youth.

The decision to use Hebrew was facilitated by Paltrow co-writer Tom Shoval and gives the film an authentic flavor. Choosing to open with a teenager, David, adds a sense of nostalgia and warmth, which may seem surprising given the subject matter.

Newcomer Noam Ovadia offers a charming interpretation of a lively young Libyan working in an Israeli oven factory, especially since he is small enough to clean the ovens. After opportunistically stealing a gold watch belonging to his boss, he overhears a private conversation about world events: a factory must be commissioned to build a crematorium for Eichmann’s body. The fact that cremation is not common in Israeli culture adds to the workers’ fascination with the event, of which they are both proud and disgusted.

David’s story is the most interesting of the three, full of simple yet vivid details about his moral dilemmas and his desire to adapt to a new culture. His tone is very different from that of Haim (Yoav Levy), Eichmann’s chief jailer, who we follow from the factory to the prison, where he guards one of the most hated men in the country.

Here are some details. Haim is to prevent Ashkenazi Jews from making contact with the prisoner in case they become “emotional”. A memorable scene is one in which he watches anxiously as a new hairdresser cuts his hair, fearing an attack. A reporter tells a visibly stressed Haim: “You, the Israeli police, have everything in the background, you are their prisoners!” Eichmann himself is shown only briefly and never in his entirety.

The last central character is Micha (Tom Haag), a police officer at the Eichmann trial. Instead of showing him on trial, he sees him return to Poland after surviving Auschwitz-Birkenau and sharing a thrilling story about his traumatic experience of him. Striking a gentle figure, Micah faces his duty with determination and humanity, offering another unique perspective.

June zero It focuses on the struggle of a worker (women are almost totally absent in this film) to do their job in an unprecedented situation: the prisoners responsible for millions of deaths must die and be cremated humanely. The practicality of this is sometimes sombre and fairly interesting, if not compelling. These three stories do not flow perfectly together and do not delve into the themes as much as they could. But it is an original take on the historical moment with some incredible scenes that will remain in your memory.