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In 1961, a key architect of the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann, was tried in Israel and sentenced to death. An odd thing happened. Officials didn’t want to bury him and risk creating a shrine, so they decided on cremation. That is strictly against the Jewish religion and there were no crematoria in the country.

So Shlomi Zebco (played by Tzahi Grad), a former Israeli paramilitary soldier who owns a commercial oven factory, was asked by the government to make one big enough to incinerate Hitler’s former top lieutenant, handing him a manual with instructions – in German. Zebco’s assistant realized with horror the model was used in Nazi death camps.

The story is told from three points of view: of a 13-year-old Jewish Libyan boy who is kicked out of school, finds a job at the factory and helps build the oven; Eichmann’s guard, a Moroccan Jew tasked with...

The capture, trial, and execution of Adolf Eichmann is a profound moment for the processing of historical trauma. One of the architects of the Holocaust, the Nazi leader was so driven by hate and a murderous desire to exterminate the Jewish people that a fellow Nazi testified at the Nuremberg Trials that Eichmann once said if he should die he would “leap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction.”

Jake Paltrow’s new Israeli drama “June Zero” shows how infinitely more complex the feelings in Israel were around the time of the conviction and execution in 1962. The nation’s intelligence forces had located him in Argentina and captured him two years earlier without the authorization of the Argentine government, which had looked the other way to Nazis settling there following the end of World War II.

In the 1963 book that largely came to define her career, Eichmann in Jerusalem, historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt surmised that “the trouble with [Adolf] Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal.” The year was 1961, and the state of Israel was very publicly trying Eichmann for his architectural hand in the Holocaust.

Arendt had begun covering the controversial spectacle for The New Yorker before it ballooned into a larger project. With Eichmann in Jerusalem, she, among other things, coined the term “the banality of evil,” as well as suggested that the court case against Eichmann was an exercise in theatrics. A frequent critic of early Zionism, Arendt wondered for whom the trial was for, and questioned its necessity. With June Zero, director and co-writer Jake Paltrow, offers his own possible retort:...

"Some truths... have to wait patiently to be discovered." Cohen Media Group has unveiled an official trailer for a film titled June Zero, which has been awaiting a release for a few years. June Zero is co-written and directed by filmmaker Jake Paltrow, of the films The Good Night and Young Ones before. It premiered in 2022 at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival but hasn't been given a US release until now. This captivating film examines Adolf Eichmann's trial in 1962 in Israel, showing the empathy & humanism amidst the atrocities during the Holocaust. Told from three different perspectives of regular people involved in his imprisonment and execution. Entirely shot on 16mm film, this "vividly textured work brings to life the varied experiences of these characters, emphasizing that the same historical events are often perceived differently by people... As the film delves into the complexities of the human experience during this pivotal trial,...

Exclusive: Cohen Media Group has acquired North American distribution rights to June Zero, writer-director Jake Paltrow’s historical drama about the last days of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.

The distribution deal was negotiated by Robert Aaronson, Cohen Media Group Senior Vice President, and CAA Media Finance. Films Boutique is representing International rights for the film at the American Film Market.

June Zero, shot in Israel and Ukraine, is set in 1962 Israel, where, after an emotional public trial, Adolf Eichmann – one of the key architects of the Holocaust – has been tried and sentenced to death for crimes against humanity and crimes against the Jewish people. The film explores the experiences of three characters involved in the nation-defining event: David, a precocious 13-year-old Libyan factory worker; Haim, Eichmann’s main prison guard, tasked with protecting this dead man walking; and Micha, a police investigator for the prosecution, on his first trip...

Shot in lush super 16mm, Jake Paltrow’s “June Zero” takes a unique look back at the execution of Adolf Eichmann after his trial in Israel during the early 1960s. Told in a triptych, the film follows 13-year-old Libyan immigrant David (Noam Ovadia), who claims to have worked on the oven where Eichmann’s corpse was incinerated. Hayim, a Moroccan guard assigned to Eichmann’s jail cell, and Micha (Tom Hagi), a Polish survivor of Auschwitz who became the chief interrogator at the trial.

Continue reading ‘June Zero’ Review: Jake Paltrow Examines The Trial & Execution Of An Infamous Nazi War Crimes Architect [Karlovy Vary] at The Playlist.

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...

In the era of #MeToo, Time’s Up and a time when women are being treated unfairly in the workplace, The Assistant couldn’t be released at a more relevant time — and the fact that it takes place in Hollywood makes the story too on the nose.

Written and directed by Kitty Green and starring the indelible Julie Garner, the drama follows one day in the life of Jane (Garner), a recent college graduate who has hopes of becoming a film producer. She recently landed her dream job as a junior assistant to a powerful entertainment mogul (is this beginning to sound familiar?) Most of her day is spent doing what many expect from an assistant job: she makes coffee, orders lunch, takes phone messages, takes messages, loads paper in the copy machine — it’s your basic gofer work. But as we see her go through her day, she begins...

Exclusive: Here’s a first teaser trailer for Incitement, Israel’s international Oscar hopeful which last month scored a U.S. deal for WestEnd Films with Greenwich Entertainment.

Writer-director Yaron Zilberman’s (A Late Quartet) Toronto and London Film Festival drama-thriller chronicles the year leading up to the assassination of Israel’s prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. Set against the backdrop of Rabin’s efforts to end the Israeli-Palestian conflict, the film is told through the journey of the assassin, Yigal Amir (played by Yehuda Nahari Halevi).

The film examines all the forces that acted on him, from his personal quest to become a hero in the eyes of his peers, and the rejection he faces from his love interest, to the intense incitement of politicians and religious leaders.

Pic was co-written by Ron Leshem (Euphoria) and Yaron Zilberman. Yehuda Nahari Halevi (Wedding Doll) stars as Yigal Amir, alongside Amitay Yaish Ben Ousilio...

Premiered at Tiff 2019, Israel Film Festival Los Angeles, this film both incites and indicts violent reactions.

The Opening Night film of the Israel Film Festival Los Angeles, Incitement, was the winner of the Ophir Award for Israel’s Best Feature Film in 2019 and thereby is Israel’s Official Selection to the 2019 Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. Its world premiere was at the Toronto International Film Festival 2019.

Yaron Zilberman spoke at the Israel Film Festival’s Opening Night and acknowledged that the past 15 years were the greatest in Israeli film history.

Even if this film was not funded by the Israel Film Fund which operates independently of the government, the greatness of the industry today is attributable to the recently retired head of the Israel Film Fund, Katriet Schory who has fought his own government for creative freedom for its filmmakers and greenlit some of the strongest most compelling films of any country.

Directed by Yaron Zilberman and written by Yaron Zilberman and Ron Leshem, Incitement stars Yehuda Nahari Halevi, Amitay Yaish Ben Ousilio, Sivan Mast, Yoav Levi, Daniella Kertesz and Anat Ravnitzki.

Incitement is a film that was sure to incite the current Israeli government. In fact, Israel’s culture minister, Miri Regev claimed that the film — which received no state funding — maligned current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu by suggesting he played a part in the incitement, through its footage of him speaking at a right-wing rally where protesters branded Rabin a “traitor”, a “murderer” and a “Nazi” for having signed a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

A psychological thriller, Incitement chronicles the year leading to the assassination of Israel’s prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. On the backdrop of Rabin’s efforts to end once and for all the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the film is told through the journey of the assassin. It examines all the forces that acted on him, from his personal quest to become a hero in the eyes of his peers, and the rejection he faces from his love interest, to the intense incitement of politicians and religious leaders. The film is a cautionary tale to what happens when leaders use politics of violence and hate.

Continue reading on SydneysBuzz The Blog »...

Exclusive: Israeli drama-thriller Incitement, the country’s international Oscar hopeful, has scored a U.S. deal for WestEnd Films with Greenwich Entertainment.

Writer-director Yaron Zilberman’s (A Late Quartet) Toronto title chronicles the year leading up to the assassination of Israel’s prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. Set against the backdrop of Rabin’s efforts to end the Israeli-Palestian conflict, the film is told through the journey of the assassin, Yigal Amir.

The film examines all the forces that acted on him, from his personal quest to become a hero in the eyes of his peers, and the rejection he faces from his love interest, to the intense incitement of politicians and religious leaders.

Pic was co-written by Ron Leshem (Euphoria) and Yaron Zilberman. Yehuda Nahari Halevi (Wedding Doll) stars as Yigal Amir, alongside Amitay Yaish Ben Ousilio (The Man in the Wall), Anat Ravnizky, Yoav Levi, Dolev Ohana, Raanan Paz,...

In a passionately divided democracy, the hate-filled words of politicians, cultural influencers and the right-wing media incite an extreme nationalist to commit murder. Although this plot summary sounds as if could be ripped from recent U.S. headlines, “Incitement” is actually a provocative drama from Israeli helmer Yaron Zilberman (“A Late Quartet”), which looks at what inspired the devoutly Orthodox law student Yigal Amir to kill Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The assassination took place on Nov. 4, 1995, as Rabin was trying to orchestrate a comprehensive peace settlement between Israelis and Palestinians that involved giving up territory controled by Israel since the Six Day War, and his death effectively derailed the prospect of peace.

While “Incitement” is a compelling watch, with archival footage neatly woven in, and offers a salutary warning about how easily democracies are endangered, this psychological profile of a political assassin nevertheless falls into a kind of moral trap.

The Unorthodox Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Eliran Malka Screenwriter: Eliran Malka Cast: Shuli Rand, Yaacov Cohen, Yoav Levi, Golan Azulai, Shifi Aloni, Or Lumbrozo Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 5/25/19 Opens: June 4, 2019 at Jcc in Manhattan The old saying is that you put two […]

The post The Unorthodox Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Directors with shorts at the Jerusalem Film Festival are readying an intriguing slate of features, including an ambitious period drama about Judas Iscariot, a documentary omnibus about life in the West Bank and a drama about gay life in Israel.

Directing duo Ehab Tarabieh and Yoav Gross, whose Berlin Golden Bear nominee Smile, and the World Will Smile Back charts the exchange between a Palestinian family (the al-Haddad family are co-directors) and Israeli soldiers, are planning a Life In A Day-style doc omnibus about life in the West Bank.

As was the case with Smile, participating families will be encouraged to take an active part in the post-production process with camera training also available. Funding is likely to come from B’Tselem.

Recent Tel Aviv Film School graduate Shira Porat, director of short Has Anyone Seen Eyal Nurich?, is on course to renew her collaboration with her award-winning lead actress Hadas Yaron (Fill The Void) in...

Here's the briefing: op-sec is a priority when searching for Obl, since the Isi is unreliable. Ksm is not a Dutch airline and we depart Area 51 at Zero Dark Thirty. Got it?

It may be one of the best films of the year; it's certainly turning into one of the most controversial. But in some respects, it is also the most perplexing. Woe betide those who go to see Zero Dark Thirty without being properly briefed. A passing interest in the CIA and the hunt for Osama bin Laden will not make it easy on the eye, or the ear.

The screenplay of Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar-nominated film assumes people know about counter-terrorism. And Maya, the main character, is an obsessive, whose relentless search for the al-Qaida leader doesn't include pausing for explanations. Names and acronyms fly at viewers faster than a Black Hawk helicopter, so stragglers could be easily left behind.