June Zero

<p><img alt="Laurel icon denoting the film is in competition for a Jury Prize." border="0" src="https://data.ajff.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/laurel_2023_JuryPrize_01.png" style="width:20%; max-width:20%; margin-left:10px; float:right;" />An intimate, wholly original window on Adolf Eichmann’s last days, writer­-director Jake Paltrow’s period drama depicts the seismic impact of the Nazi war criminal’s 1962 execution on Israeli society. The nation-­defining event is told through three distinctive characters on the periphery of history: a precocious Libyan immigrant boy, an unnerved Moroccan prison guard, and a haunted Polish Holocaust survivor. With Eichmann relegated to the background, the trio’s seemingly ordinary lives become intertwined in the extraordinary, seminal moment. This fascinating reflection on Holocaust historiography, and the identity of the Jewish homeland, is captured in warmly saturated 16mm cinematography, shot in Israel and (with unforeseen resonance) Ukraine.</p>