Golda
Historical drama starring Helen Mirren in the role of Israel’s ’Iron Lady’ – Prime Minister Golda Meir – during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
On October 6th, 1973, under cover of darkness, on Israel’s holiest day and during the month of Ramadan, the combined forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan begin a surprise attack on the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. Outnumbered and outgunned, Israel’s first female prime minister, Golda Meir, confronts the immediate, clear, and present danger of a ticking timebomb that she hoped never to face. Surrounded, isolated, and frustrated by the infighting of her all-male cabinet, with little hope of rescue, she is in a race against time to save millions of lives on both sides of the conflict.
An almost unrecognisable Helen Mirren brings to life one of the most iconic and influential political leaders of the twentieth century. Meir was a woman at the centre of a dramatic geopolitical episode, in a potentially fatal moment for her country, surrounded by men: her generals Dayan, Elazar and Sharon, and Henry Kissinger in a decisive scene of high diplomacy.
The choice of a non-Jewish actress in the role of the Israeli prime minister was publicly criticized by some, but director Nativv commented: ‘When I met Helen in my house, I felt like I was meeting a family member, like an aunt. I felt that I’m meeting someone like a Jewish person because for me she’s got the Jewish chops to portray Golda,’ he said. ‘We spoke for four hours. She totally got everything, every nook and cranny, everything in this character.’