"June 0th: The Day Eichmann was Executed" Director Jake Paltrow depicts the Holocaust using different methods and perspectives [Director's Interview Vol.348]

Adolf Eichmann was a high-ranking Nazi German official who directed the mass deportation of Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp. After the war, he attempts to escape to Argentina, but is captured by the Israeli secret intelligence agency (Mossad) and secretly taken to Israel. After a four-month trial, the Israeli government sentenced Eichmann to death in December 1961, and sentenced him to death between May 31 and June 1 of the following year, the only time the Israeli state used the death penalty. He was hanged on “June 0th.” It is known that the body was cremated and the ashes were scattered outside Israeli waters, but in reality cremation is prohibited by law in Israel, where 90% of the population is Jewish and Muslim. Equipment does not exist. So, who cremated Eichmann's body and how?

The person who focused on this historical fact and depicted the scars of the Holocaust from a new perspective was actor Gwyneth Paltrow's younger brother, Jake, who has worked on films such as " Mad Guns " (14) and " De Palma " (15). -Directed by Paltrow. When I spoke to him, I found out that, as he directed the documentary film `` De Palma, '' he was filled with an endless amount of attention to cinematic techniques.

“June 0th: The day Eichmann was executed” Synopsis

1961. The death penalty has been handed down in the four-month trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. David (Noam Ovadia), whose family immigrated to Israel from Libya, stares curiously at his teacher and classmates who interrupt class to listen to the radio. After school, David's father takes him to an ironworks on the outskirts of town. The president of Zebco (Zahi Grad) was looking for a boy who could clean the furnace. David works hard to help his father, who is not good at Hebrew, but ends up stealing a gold pocket watch from the cabinet in the president's office. It was said to be a spoils of war that Zebco had obtained in Israel's struggle for independence. David escapes from the uncomfortable school and begins to work at an ironworks. Friendly factory workers such as Yanek (Ami Smolachik), a sheet metal worker who has a prisoner number tattooed on his left arm, Ezra, an engineer, and Cocorico, whose trademark is chicken-shaped candy, take care of David. Zebco also begins to respect David for resolving the payment dispute. At that time, Zebco's comrade and prison guard Heim (Joab Levi) brings in a top-secret project with blueprints in hand. The blueprint is for Topf & Co.'s small incinerator used at Auschwitz. Eichmann burns it. Unrest spreads among the factory workers.

Index

• The Holocaust depicted by changing methods and perspectives
• Stories that can only be told through movies

The Holocaust depicted by changing methods and perspectives

Q: I was impressed by the way the story is structured from the perspectives of three people in different positions: the boy David, the prison guard Heim, and the interrogator Miha.

Paltrow: I'm glad you pointed that out. thank you. For example, let's say you want to make a movie about Lincoln's assassination while attending a theater. Therefore, by drawing characters who at first glance have no connection to Lincoln, such as people working at the theater or in town, and touching on major historical events, the story will become more familiar and more powerful. I wrote the script with this in mind.

Q: I feel like movies about the Holocaust have rarely incorporated the perspective of a Jew from Libya (David). Please let me know if you have any intentions behind it.

Paltrow: David is a real person, and as a boy he was actually in the factory and was involved in building the incinerator. Although he is originally from Iraq, in this story he is a Jew (Mizrahim) who came to Israel from Libya. Some Mizrahim were victims of the Holocaust and were actually interned in ghettos. Even though they are called Jews, they are a diverse group of people with various nationalities and races. I created a character like David because I wanted people to be exposed to things that we, as Outsider, don't know.

“June 0th: The day Eichmann was executed” © THE OVEN FILM PRODUCTION LIMITED PARTERNSHIP

Q: I felt strongly that it was meaningful to deliberately set the story after the war, rather than during World War II, when the Holocaust occurred.

Paltrow: David was born after the war, so he didn't experience the Holocaust, so he doesn't know much about it. He doesn't really know who Eichmann is, and gradually learns about him by listening to the news on the radio. The same goes for the audience, who get to relive David's experiences in this film. In this way, I wanted to make a film that would be relevant to today's times.

I also wanted to try out the same cinematic techniques that director Claude Lanzmann used in his documentary film SHOAH (1985) in this feature film. One of these is the so-called "ghost camera," which is a technique in which when listening to stories about Holocaust experiences, the camera does not capture the speaker, but instead reflects something inorganic, such as the landscape. Normally, the story would often be overlaid with footage from the past, but we've already seen a lot of that footage in films about the Holocaust, such as `` Schindler's List '' (1993). There is. I don't think I can make a video that surpasses that. If that's the case, I wanted to use a different perspective and method to create a piece that would make the viewer think about it and make it their own.

Stories that can only be told through movies