Why did it take decades for a biopic to be made about Israel’s first and only female prime minister, Golda Meir?
Filmmaker Guy Nattiv, who boarded the “open assignment” project well before his live-action short Oscar win for Skin in 2019, tells us why, in addition to Golda‘s recent shepherding as a feature.
Deadline
Helen Mirren, whose casting as Meir stirred the media early on since the actress isn’t Jewish, became attached before Nattiv. All along the Oscar winning actress had the blessing of Meir’s grandchildren, in particular Shaul Rahabi. Bleecker Street, the domestic distributor, and Embankment, kept the project afloat financially toward a finish line when Covid stalled development.
Nattiv doesn’t foresee Golda stirring up any more controversy, particularly in its homeland of Israel. All the warts are out there per the director about the female prime minister and the casualties of 1973’s Yom Kippur War, which she presided over; that face-off with Egypt and Syria which went down in the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.
Bleeker Street Media /Courtesy Everett Collection
Everett Collection
The uncensored docs from Meir’s government hearing meetings –moments portrayed in the film–have largely cleared up her name.
“We understood the narrative was that she wasn’t to blame. It was much more complicated than that. She relied on her dysfunctional commanders who did a lot of wrong stuff, that almost brought us to a total devastation,” says the filmmaker.
As far as all the noise goes on Mirren playing Meir, Nattiv defends, “I’m Jewish, I’m Israeli, both of my grandparents are holocaust survivors. There’s no one more sensitive than me when somebody is portraying a Jew in the wrong way.”
“But, and it’s a big but: Helen Mirren portrays Golda in a brilliant way,” says Nattiv, “She has Golda’s soul, she has a Jewish soul.”
“We miss people with integrity,” says Nattiv on the current state of most world leaders; many unlike Meir, who resigned in 1974 due to the fallout of the Yom Kippur War.
“Humble people that cared more about the country than themselves,” says Nattiv, “What you see now is totally corrupt.”
Golda opens at a special Fathom fan event on Wednesday before heading into 800+ theaters from Bleecker Street this Friday.
Listen to our conversation here with Nattiv:
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