Golda

"Israel, 1973... One woman stood between victory and defeat."

2023 1h 41m EN

😐

6.3

MID

★6.3TMDB · 222

DramaHistoryWar

Synopsis

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Set during the tense 19 days of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir is faced with the potential of Israel’s complete destruction. She must navigate overwhelming odds, a skeptical cabinet and a complex relationship with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, with millions of lives in the balance. Her tough leadership and compassion would ultimately decide the fate of her nation and leave her with a controversial legacy around the world.

“Israel, 1973... One woman stood between victory and defeat.”

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Cast

Helen Mirren
Golda Meir
Camille Cottin
Lou Kaddar
Liev Schreiber
Henry Kissinger
Lior Ashkenazi
David 'Dado' Elazar
Rami Heuberger
Moshe Dayan
Rotem Keinan
Zvi Zamir
Dvir Benedek
Eli Zeira
Ellie Piercy
Shir Shapiro

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Guy Nattiv
Writers: Dan West, Nicholas Martin
Languages: Hebrew, English
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 3 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Hebrew, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Guy Nattiv, shot by Jasper Wolf. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Dascha Dauenhauer. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Helen Mirren and Camille Cottin and Liev Schreiber carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Israel, 1973... One woman stood between victory and defeat.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt14454876 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Guy Nattiv directs. Jasper Wolf behind the camera. Dascha Dauenhauer scores. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in Hebrew, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 3 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Hebrew, English.
3International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
4Directed by Guy Nattiv, shot by Jasper Wolf. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Dascha Dauenhauer. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Helen Mirren and Camille Cottin and Liev Schreiber carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Israel, 1973... One woman stood between victory and defeat.".
8IMDB entry: tt14454876 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 16 themes, including "israel", "1970s", "zionism", "based on true story".

The technical file

Cinematography: Jasper Wolf
Original score: Dascha Dauenhauer
Production design: Arad Sawat
Makeup / hair: Karen Hartley-Thomas
VFX supervisor: John Paul Docherty
Runtime: 101 min · 1h 41m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $7,039,677
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Golda (2023)

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Guy Nattiv

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Brent Marchant2023-08-26
★ 5/10
Paying homage to a country’s great leader is certainly a worthy and noble undertaking, but, when it comes to director Guy Nattiv’s would-be tribute to Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir (Helen Mirren), the film comes up far short of what it could have been. The film focuses on Meir’s handling of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when the nation was on the brink of collapse from “surprise” (though strongly anticipated) attacks by Egypt and Syria, largely as retribution for their territorial losses in the 1967 Six-Day War, with significant support from the Soviet Union. The picture presents a detailed by-the-numbers account of the conflict, including Meir’s involvement with her top military advisors and with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber). Granted, it’s important to understand this background to provide context for the stage on which this drama plays out. However, for a release called “Golda,” one would think that its focus would be on the title character, as a biographical sketch that just happens to be set during wartime. Instead, because of this, Meir is almost reduced to a supporting player in a much wider cast of characters playing out the specifics of the conflict (at least in the first half). There’s virtually no back story about the PM as an individual, providing little insight into who she is and how that impacts her approach to handling the combat. To its credit, the film improves in the second half, especially when it starts presenting Meir’s story from a somewhat more personal perspective. By that point, however, the filmmaker has already lost his audience for what this offering could and should have been. Viewers come away from this one knowing little more about the woman who was a national hero in a time of crisis than what they would likely find in history books and documentary films. In fairness, Mirren and Schreiber deliver fine performances, disappearing into their respective roles and making this production look better than it actually is. But that’s not saying much given what seems to be the genuinely sincere intent that was behind this release. Unlike Meir, this film simply doesn’t rise to the challenge, and that’s unfortunate considering who it is ultimately trying to honor. And, because of that, it should come as no surprise why this offering has ended up in the late summer stash of cinematic also-rans.
CinemaSerf2023-10-07
★ 6/10
I suppose this might have been a little bit more interesting if I had known more about the 'Yom Kippur" war that threatened the still quite fledgling state of Israel. With Egypt and Syria massing huge numbers of troops and tanks on the borders, it falls to the Israeli prime minister Golda Meir (Dame Helen Mirren) to galvanise her hugely outnumbered population and to work with her legendary defence minster Moshe Dayan (Rami Heuberger) to stave off this overwhelming force long enough for her to convince American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (an almost unrecognisable Liev Schreiber) and his boss Richard Nixon to brave the threats from the Soviets and the Saudis and come to her aid. What's annoying about this film is the astonishing lack of substance to the thing. Much effort has gone into Dame Helen's prosthetics, however much of the rest it seems to repetitively follow her walking about from place to place - with her famous white shoes - whilst lighting and smoking a cigarette. We know she is ill, and we also see from her frequent visits for treatment that the adjacent mortuary is testifying to the increasing horror of this invasion. However there's virtually no detail as to who she is/was, how she got the job, how her intelligence was attained, how her skilful combination of diplomacy and courage all helped to save her nation from annihilation. It's all just presented in a second-rate documentary style that was as unconvincing as it was shallow and episodic. Sure, it illustrates well the perils of war - but, to be honest, it could be any war where one nation was up against a larger, more powerful, one. To do justice to this story and this woman, it needed greater focus and much more detail. This is nobody's finest work here, sorry.