You won’t want to miss Helen Mirren’s transformation into Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the new trailer for “Golda.”
Directed by Guy Nattiv and written by Nicholas Martin, “Golda” concerns the 19-day Yom Kippur War waged over territory that Israel had previously annexed and how the conflict became a proxy war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The Yom Kippur War saw Israelis recognizing that there was little guarantee that they could dominate the Arab states militarily, as they had done in previous Arab–Israeli Wars. The conflict slowly paved the way for the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. The 1978 Camp David Accords saw Israel return the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. The subsequent 1979 Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty marked the first instance of an Arab country recognizing Israel as a legitimate state.
The trailer presents a historical docudrama in the vein of “The Darkest Hour,” during which a key global conflict is seen through the eyes of a chief executive or determined national leader.
Featuring Liev Schreiber as Henry Kissinger and set for theatrical release on Aug. 25 courtesy of Bleecker Street, the ShivHans Pictures-produced “Golda” debuted at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival where it received mixed-negative reviews and little in the way of buzz.
Mirren’s casting caused a minor media storm in 2022 with accusations of “Jewface” thrown about. It kick-started an ongoing debate about non-Jewish actors playing explicitly Jewish characters.
“I’m sure she [Mirren] will be marvelous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela,” actress Maureen Lipman stated when speaking last year to The Jewish Chronicle. “You just couldn’t even go there.”
One can imagine that the film’s release will continue this conversation while also possibly raising hackles over a seemingly sympathetic portrayal of Kissinger.
