“June Zero,” a captivating historical drama set in Israel in 1961-1962, tells the true stories of three Israelis with different connections to the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi architect of the mass murder of Jews.

Each of the stories is told from the viewpoints of those three Israelis. One is a 13-year-old boy who recently immigrated from Libya to Israel with his family and is struggling to fit in. The second is a dedicated Jewish-Moroccan prison guard who has been assigned to Eichmann. The third is an Israeli police investigator, a Shoah survivor, who is working for the prosecution.

The film focuses on these individuals rather than the trial or Eichmann himself, and it begins as Eichmann’s death sentence is announced. The personal stories are emotional, and also highlight the diversity of places people came from to Israel.

The moving drama is directed by Jake Paltrow, the brother of Gwyneth Paltrow and son of renowned director/producer Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner. Although the director is a Jewish American, the film is in Hebrew and a little Polish, with English subtitles, and was shot primarily in Israel in 2022. “June Zero” played the 2023 St. Louis International Film Festival, as well as a number of Jewish film festivals, and now is returning to the St. Louis area for a longer theatrical run.

Paltrow, who co-wrote the script with Israeli-born Tom Shoval, weaves these three stories together well, finding links between these seemingly unconnected people, creating a single narrative thread with three chapters. The result is a touching, involving human drama with moments of gripping tension and strong storytelling, enhanced by excellent acting.

The Eichmann trial was a pivotal event in Israeli history. Israel’s secret service found and captured Eichmann in South America, where he had been hiding since World War II. The captured Nazi was brought back to Israel for trial, an emotional national event for the young nation. The film gives us an unexpected Israeli “everyman” viewpoint of this historic event and time.

The film’s first story, about the 13-year-old immigrant boy, David. (Noam Ovadia is the most affecting and also the most surprising, as it immerses us in a child’s eye view of the events of 1961-1962.) The title of the film comes from this segment, with young boys in David’s working-class neighbor sneaking looks at a real tabloid of that era, which printed “June Zero” as the date on the issue it published for Eichmann’s execution.

The story of the prison guard, Haim (Yoav Levi), brings us as close to the Nazi as we get in this drama. We get only partial glimpses of Eichmann, in nicely composed scenes, as we follow Haim, politely and carefully exacting in carrying out his duties. One of those duties is to make sure no one with a direct connection to the Shoah comes in contact with Eichmann, to prevent any vigilante acts to interfere with the state of Israel’s carrying out its justice.

When Eichmann leaves Haim’s charge, we move to the third story, of Micha (Tom Hagi), a Shoah survivor who is an investigator for the prosecution. This takes viewers to Poland, where Micha gathers information to be used in the trial (this section of the film was shot in Ukraine before the current war). There Micha engages in sometimes testy conversations with an Israeli commissioner, played by Joy Rieger, where they discuss a number of thorny issues, such as how to memorialize the Shoah or best honor its survivors. These engrossing and deep discussions add greatly to the film.

The drama was shot on 16mm film, with gives it a distinct, appealing period look, and the point of view shifts with the characters — transitions Paltrow handles well. Cinematographer Yaron Scharf creates some striking images in this often surprisingly intimate drama. The various characters’ personal histories color their views of this national event, illustrating how the threads of individual experiences blend in weaving the tapestry of a nation, both unifying and diverse.

“June Zero” is a moving and entirely different look at the Eichmann trial, told through the stories of three Israelis who played small but important roles in it, and intelligently exploring differing opinions and diversity within Israel in an engaging, thought-provoking way.

“June Zero” opens Friday, June 19 at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.