'Golda' portrays iconic former Israeli prime minister

As the title of the film indicates, she is among those historical figures who can be recognized simply by her first name: "Golda" is a new biopic on Israel's first (and to date only) female prime minister, Golda Meir. Also known as the "Iron Lady of Israel," she served as the country's head of state between 1969 and 1974.

Directed by Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv and starring Helen Mirren in the title role, "Golda" premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2023 and has now been released in cinemas around the world.

The film does not portray the politician's entire life or career,  but instead focuses on how Meir dealt with the Yom Kippur War. The war was a deadly conflict between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria, which was fought from Oct. 6 to Oct. 24, 1973.

"I don't think cradle-to-grave stories work terribly well in cinema. And it's kind of difficult when you're using different actors to portray a character at different ages," said screenwriter Nicholas Martin, who came up with the idea for the film after completing another biographical work, "Florence Foster Jenkins." 

Martin decided to focus on the Yom Kippur War because he felt that "all of Golda's life experience had led to this moment," the British screenwriter told DW. "In some respects, I think she was really the only person who could have led the country at that moment, because there was nothing left to frighten her."

Jewish family fled from Kyiv to the US

Born on May 3, 1898, in Kyiv under the Russian Empire, Golda Mabovitch and her Jewish family immigrated to Wisconsin in the United States in 1906 to escape imminent pogroms. In her autobiography, Meir recalled that one her earliest memories was of her father boarding up their house amid the anti-Jewish riots.

The film also refers to this early childhood experience. During a phone call with Henry Kissinger (portrayed by Liev Schreiber), a fellow Jewish politician who at the time had recently been named US Secretary of State by Richard Nixon, Meir discusses with him conditions for a ceasefire.

When Kissinger mentions the powerful influence of the Soviet Union in the conflict, she replies: "Let me tell you about the Russians, Henry. When I was a child in Ukraine, at Christmas time, my father would board up the windows of our house to protect us from Cossacks who would get drunk and attack Jews. They would beat Jews to death in the street, for fun. My father would hide us in the cellar. And we'd stay silent, hoping the killers would pass us by."

With the recollection, Golda aims to establish that no matter what happens, she no longer fears the Russians: "I'm not that little girl hiding in the cellar," she affirms.

Nicholas Martin had written the script in 2017, before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but found it indeed "very, very pleasing that Golda was spot on" in her defiant attitude towards the Russians, which mirrors the Ukrainians' today.

The screenwriter chose to include the story in the film since he was struck by the fact "that her early childhood memories of growing up in Ukraine — or Russia, as it was — were important, because I think the fear of the pogroms had helped shape her."

"One of Golda's strengths was that she had grown up understanding that the world is a tragic place that's driven by violence," explained Martin, pointing out that the Israeli politician also knew that "if you want to make the world a better place, you have to just accept that."

Yom Kippur War: A 'tremendous trauma' for Israel

Egypt and Syria launched their surprise attack on October 6, 1973 — on Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

The Israel Defense Forces were caught unprepared and outnumbered. Both the Arabs and Israel declared victory in the war. While Israel ostensibly won on a military level, the victory came at a huge cost. Within the period of the armed conflict, approximately 2,800 Israeli soldiers were killed and at least 8,000 more were wounded.

For such a small and young country, it was "a tremendous trauma," pointed out Martin.

In the Western world, Meir is widely remembered as an icon of the 20th century: A woman who broke barriers, a pioneer of the Zionist cause and a dedicated leader with a striking sense of humor.

But her image is still clouded in controversy in Israel, where "Golda's reputation, her name, is caught up with that trauma," explained Martin, adding that even years later, Israelis would go up to Meir's surviving family members in public spaces and start reproaching them about her failure during her five years as prime minister.

Secret listening system was not switched on

Shortly after the war, an investigation, called the Agranat Commission of Inquiry, was established to determine more precisely who was to blame for the failure to anticipate and properly react to the Egyptian and Syrian surprise attack.

Ten days after the commission published its report, Meir resigned. But most details of the investigation remained classified for years.

Based on now-declassified documents, the film also goes back to this inquiry, revealing information that wasn't made available to those who followed the case at the time.

One aspect of military intelligence that had to be kept secret was that Israel had created an extremely costly listening system that tapped into the Egyptian command lines between the Suez Canal and Cairo, as Martin found out from the head of Israel State Archives, Hagai Tsoref, while researching for the screenplay.

Thanks to this sophisticated bugging device, the prime minister was told that she would have at least 72 hours notice ahead of any attack that the Egyptians were planning. "Provided the system was switched on," pointed out Martin. But the head of military security at Military Intelligence at the time was so convinced that there was no prospect of war, that he didn't even switch the system on, explained the screenwriter.

That's why Martin believes that "it was very unfair to blame Golda."

A secret battle with cancer

Until her death at the age of 80 in 1978, Golda Meir had kept another important secret from her people: She had spent more than 12 years fighting malignant lymphoma, a cancer of the blood.

As shown in "Golda," the chain-smoking prime minister was receiving radiation therapy amid the conflict.

But a year before her death, she was still healthy enough to participate in a historic event, when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel and address the Knesset with a call for peace, on November 20, 1977.

The former Israeli prime minister met with her Egyptian counterpart. It was a moment of special warmth: All while praising Sadat for his courage and vision, Meir joked around about how he always called her "the old lady."

Even though she didn't live to witness the signature of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty in March 1979, she contributed to the stabilization of relations, which ultimately led to peace between the two countries that had been locked in conflict since the foundation of Israel in 1948. And that, as Martin points out, "is her greatest legacy."

Edited by: Brenda Haas

Correction: After the publication of this article, a sentence was added on August 28, 2023 to emphasize the different perspectives on the winners of the war.