JUNE ZERO is American director, Jake Paltrow's (The Good Night) Hebrew language, fictional depiction -- based on true accounts -- of the events in Israel leading up to the 1962 execution of Adolf Eichmann, architect of the mass murder of the Jews during World War II, and the ultimate disposition of his remains. Produced by award winners Oren Moverman (The Messenger, Bad Education, Love and Mercy) and Miranda Bailey (Time Out Of Mind, Swiss Army Man), this gripping and surprising new vision of the landmark historical milestone tells its story from the intertwined perspectives of three largely unrelated figures. A smart and savvy 13-year-old Jewish Libyan immigrant, David (Noam Ovadia), acts as the viewer's guide, and lends the film a sense of nostalgia and warmth. The factory where David finds work is to be commissioned to make a crematorium for Eichmann's body. Given the Jewish prohibition against cremation, this task enhances the workers' fascination with this event. A parallel story features Haim (Yoav Levy), Eichmann's prison guard, who is charged with isolating Eichmann (who is never seen in full) from European-descended Israelis. Finally is the story of Micha (Tom Hagi, Zero Dark Thirty), a young emigre survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, now an Israeli police interrogator for the war crimes prosecution. Largely shot on lush Super 16mm film in Israel and Ukraine, Paltrow’s vividly textured work uses these disparate points of view to paint an image of the diasporic Jewish people and, in its unorthodox narrative approach, reminds us that the same histories are experienced differently by people all over the world, and we are connected through shared traumatic pasts.
