‘June Zero’ Review: Jake Paltrow’s Frustratingly Split-Focus Hebrew-Language Eichmann Execution Drama
variety.comJessica Kiang However many books and movies take it as their subject, a historical travesty on the incomprehensible scale of the Holocaust must always contain within it an uncountable number of untold stories.
Given this wealth of untapped dramatic potential, it’s all the more perplexing that American director Jake Paltrow should choose to refer to his family’s Jewish heritage (the Paltrows have Belarusian and Polish Jewish ancestry) with “June Zero,” a polished, well-performed but thinly stretched attempt to communicate the seismic impact of Adolf Eichmann’s 1962 execution on Israeli society.
Though it occasionally brushes up against intricate ideas about memory and memorialization — who gets to be commemorated, who must not, and the genesis of the ‘never forget’ ethos — “June Zero” itself leaves a quickly fading impression.
The film’s status as an Israeli prestige project is signalled by the involvement of the Israeli Ministry For Culture and Sport and The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, among other institutions whose logos unfurl before the opening credits like a particularly long Powerpoint presentation.
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