Latest cinema releases now showing. - Helen Mirren brilliantly portrays Golda Meir.
In this horrifying journal, only seemingly harmless digits are recorded. Beneath each digit, though, lurk victims and slain soldiers. In the movie "Golda," premier Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir, portrayed by Helen Mirren (born 1945/1948), scribbles these numbers in her tiny notebook. "I've tallied them all, each and every one," she proclaims at one point. Director Guy Nattiv's portrayal of the well-known politician zeroes in on the most harrowing moments of Meir's life. This lends the "Iron Lady of Israel" moniker, sometimes used in German subtitles for the film, a greater ring of truth.
Symbolism
Alan Gibson portrayed various aspects of Meir's life in "A Woman Called Golda" via Ingrid Bergman in 1982. In contrast, Nattiv focuses primarily on one of the most challenging stretches in Meir's existence during the Yom Kippur War. The film narrates the situation during the 1973 war that lasted nearly three weeks, with Israel on one side, and Egypt, Syria, and other Arab countries on the other. Instead of loading up the movie with action-packed combat sequences, Nattiv opts for an abundance of symbolism. Throughout "Golda," Mirren's Golda Meir plunges time and again into the isolating void of long hallways in courtrooms, hospitals, or military command centers. The movie shows her repeatedly trailing through a morgue. With each fresh episode, more lifeless soldiers' and soldiers' bodies come into view.
Smoking features frequently in the movie. Rarely does a scene pass by when Meir isn't lighting a cigarette, inhaling, or crushing it into a - frequently overflowing - ashtray. The smoke permeates the film, representing the uncertainties of the situation. The smoke grows denser over and over, fostering a blurred and chaotic atmosphere. Situation clarity, concrete action steps, or specific positions seem unattainable. Which military strategies are the adversaries planning? Can Israel triumph against the aggressors? And how certain is the backing of the oil-dependent USA and its brash Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber)?
Uncertain and resolute
Enveloped in these uncertainties, a steadfast but also unwavering Golda Meir remains undeterred. Nattiv banked on a Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning Mirren ("The Queen"). She portrays the many dimensions of her character: As a woman in a male-dominated world - one of the first female leaders in the world as Israel's Prime Minister from 1969 to 1974 - she exudes toughness at the cabinet table, bolsters her wavering Defense Minister Moshe Dayan (Rami Heuberger), and whips up a cake for a chaotic meeting. Her vulnerability surfaces repeatedly in the form of skepticism, sobbing over the dead, and the weight of her own life-threatening illness. Meir was battling cancer when she eventually succumbed to it.
The casting of a non-Jew like Mirren in the lead role of a Jewish Israeli film by a Jewish Israeli director stirred fervent discussions. At the movie's Berlinale presentation, Nattiv opined, "As a Jewish, Israeli director, I have no problem with that." For him, making the actress part of a crew to create an Israeli film was all that mattered. Additionally, Jewish and Israeli actors and actresses perform in productions worldwide.
Mirren shared her perception of Meir as a "very strong person" who had devoted her entire life to Israel. About her portrayal in the film, Mirren emphasized the importance of costumes and masks. Nattiv noted of this facet of the production, "Helen was not seen for 35 days, but only as Golda."
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Source: www.stern.de
