“Golda” looks to do the unthinkable – to portray Golda Meir, the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974, not as a historical figure but as a flesh-and-blood person. And what’s more, the movie hinges on the Yom Kippur War, an armed conflict between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (including Egypt), which puts Golda (played elegantly by Helen Mirren) in a pressure cooker. It’s incredible just how much you learn about her given the movie’s strict parameters.
As directed by Guy Nattiv, it’s a tense and unnerving history lesson, one that keeps you riveted throughout. And with Mirren as Golda, who at the time was secretly ailing, the conflict has a very human face.