Susan Granger’s review of “Golda” (Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures)
Oscar-winner Helen Mirren (“The Queen”) embodies “Golda.” Her skillful performance as Israel’s steely Prime Minister Golda Meir is startling to behold and a sure Academy Award contender.
Israeli-American filmmaker Guy Nattiv’s docudrama focuses on the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when a coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt and Syria, surprise-attacked Israel on the most holy, contemplative day of the Jewish calendar.
Utilizing a script by Nicholas Martin, Nattiv tells a tension-filled tale – one that was unknown until about 10 years ago when Top Secret government documents were declassified and 75 year-old Golda Meir’s suppressed anguish, deciding on a plan of action during that pivotal moment in history, was revealed.
Accompanied by her personal assistant, Lou Kaddar (Camille Cottin), chain-smoking Meir was undergoing painful cobalt treatments for cancer while stoically conducting strategic meetings with Defense Minister Moshe Dayan (Rami Heuberger), Mossad leader Zvi Zamir (Rotem Keinan), Military Chief-of-Staff Dado Elazar (Lior Ashkenazi), Intelligence director Eli Zeira (Dvir Benedek) and Ariel Sharon (Ohad Kollner) as war was being waged on two fronts: the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.
Having spent 3½ hours in the make-up chair each day, Helen Mirren’s meticulous physical transformation is astounding, along with her voice. Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Golda grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then moved to Denver, Colorado, before immigrating to the land then-known as Palestine, so her American accent is duly authentic.
Matching Mirren in resolute validity, Liev Schreiber is riveting as U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who dispatched jets as reinforcement when the harrowing 19-day conflict seemed lost and arrived in Tel Aviv to negotiate a fragile peace treaty with Meir over a bowl of borsht in her kitchen.
“I am first an American, second a Secretary-of-State and third a Jew,” guarded Kissinger notes diplomatically. “In this country, we read from right to left,” indomitable Meir counters, demonstrating her wryly defiant wit.
At its conclusion, there’s actual newsreel footage of the real Golda Meir engaging with Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and US President Jimmy Carter at the Peace Accord, accompanied by Leonard Cohen’s song “Who by Fire,” based on a Jewish High Holiday prayer.
In English with some Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles, on the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Golda” is an archival 8, playing in theaters.
