“An eye for an eye.” “Be the bigger person.” The right adage and approach to justice varies depending on the wrongdoing itself and the philosophy of those seeking retribution. In the legal justice system, precedent is important, especially when the stakes are so high. June Zero sheds light on how retribution was sought in one of the largest injustices in human history, framing the story around a young boy whose life became entangled in history.
June Zero recounts the trial and execution of Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. It’s 1961 in the newly formed Jewish State of Israel, and the Israeli government has just kidnapped the German war criminal to face charges. The film primarily explores the coming days through the eyes of a child, David (Adam Gabay), an Arab Jew, who has just arrived in Israel with his family. With little money, David gets a job at an oven factory, where he can make use of his small and slender frame and scrappy attitude. David navigates life as a normal 13-year-old, aware of Eichmann’s capture, but unable to understand its importance.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government, wanting to avoid a normal burial (thus risking the inadvertent creation of a Nazi shrine), decides to burn the body and scatter the ashes. And so they approach Janek (Tzahi Grad), who manages the oven factory David at which has just arrived, to build a crematorium for Eichmann’s body. The film follows David as he navigates building the oven that will cremate Eichmann, framing the event in the context of his coming of age. Director Jake Paltrow also breaks from this coming-of-age paradigm to highlight a few other figures and share different perspectives of the historical event. One is a prison guard named Haim (Yoav Levi) responsible for guarding Eichmann. The audience sees the contradiction inherent in Haim’s job ‒ he must ensure the security of a man so reviled and soon to be executed so that justice is precisely met. We also see a Holocaust survivor turned Israeli interrogator named Micha (Tom Hagi), who ponders how to move forward after his own suffering.
In a somewhat unique decision for a movie about the Holocaust, June Zero focuses solely on the ethical decisions faced by Israel immediately after the war has ended. And while David’s story is interesting and relatively light when considering the gravity of the subject matter, Micha’s screen time depicts the most profound elements of the story. As a prominent Holocaust survivor, Micha is asked to educate others about what happened in what will essentially become a museum. He is urged by another advocate to refuse this request. “Aren’t you imprisoning yourself and our people by replaying this event over and over in a tourist center?” “Do you not become a spectacle, wallowing in past suffering rather than encouraging our people to move on?” Her questions implicitly get at the big one: what is the path forward for our people? How do you honor the lives lost, punish those responsible and admonish the world to prevent this from happening again?
Micha argues that the pain he feels from others failing to grasp the depth of his suffering is as bad as the pain he experienced at Auschwitz. When he tells others of his family being gassed and the 80 consecutive lashes he received from a Nazi whip, many dismiss it as a fable. “Humans aren’t built to fathom that level of suffering,” he says. His argument underlines the central point of the film, that the choices made in Israel in these years are immensely important in the legacy that will endure. Who can decide justice and tell the story of the suffering of Jews during the Holocaust appropriately other than the victims themselves? In this age of hyperbole where the extent of the Holocaust is too often minimized or denied altogether and the existence of Israel is lambasted on its own right, the existence of a legal record in a Jewish state that can put those responsible on trial and deliver justice on its own terms puts substance to the words “never forget”.
Micha’s brief feature is easily the most compelling aspect of the film, and is one that was cut too short. Sure, David’s story is an interesting way to frame this event, and you could also say the same of Haim’s, but mixing the three reduces the punch of each. And after Micha’s scene in particular, the other two storylines feel inconsequential. Paltrow just tried to do a bit too much. Sure, most scenes are good and some individual ones are great, but the whole thing doesn’t gel well together as a cohesive film. That said, though Paltrow’s previous two feature films received modest reviews, June Zero is a very promising step for the director. By framing the story around the creation of an oven and focusing on the man responsible for keeping Eichmann safe, Paltrow creates a story full of contradictions that sets it apart in the genre. And that’s not to mention the technical elements like the cinematography that effectively portrays the setting and events in a nostalgic way. If Paltrow just narrowed his focus a bit, June Zero would have been one of the more compelling and substantive films so far this year.
Photo courtesy of Cohen Media Group
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