Golda (12A)
Directed by Guy Nattiv 

 
ON the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War comes a film which explores the conflict through the eyes of Israel’s first and only female Prime Minister to date, Golda Meir, and the high stakes decisions that she faced.  
 
It opens with Meir attending an inquiry where she is forced to explain how and why on October 6 1973 Israel was caught by complete surprise when Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a joint attack on the Sinai peninsula and the Golan Heights, which Israel had illegally occupied since 1967. This gripping drama puts you in the smoke-filled rooms with Golda and her all-male cabinet and gives you a front-row seat to all the nail-biting political and military action, without showing you any bloodshed.
 
Directed by Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv and written by Nicholas Martin it is driven by a powerhouse performance by Helen Mirren who is unrecognisable as the chain smoking, smart, no-nonsense premier, courtesy of hair and makeup designer Karen Hartley-Thomas who did an extraordinary job. 
 
Mirren, who received a major backlash for not being Jewish, was Gideon Meir’s first choice to play his grandmother. 
 
The film aims to get under Golda’s skin showing you what she was going through mentally and physically. She was the only grown up in charge in a war room full of dysfunctional military commanders who were losing it as she held her nerve, while secretly battling cancer which only her personal assistant Lou Kaddar (Camille Cottin) knew about. 
 
The image of her smoking as she is about to undergo radiation treatment speaks volumes. 
 
Dubbed the Iron Lady of Israel she was tough and strong outwardly and knew how to handle the likes of Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber), but behind closed doors she struggled with all the deaths and war losses. And all the time writing down the numbers in a small notebook. 
 
Golda fails to convey all the complexities of Israeli politics at this time, ignoring the Palestinians altogether. However it shows the flawed Meir, the war and her legacy in a new light.   

Out in cinemas today