Helen Mirren as Golda Meir promo pic
Oscar winning actress Helen Mirren visited Israel as her new movie “Golda” about the Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival. The 40th annual Jerusalem Film Festival began on July 13 with an outdoor screening of the movie.
While in Israel, Helen Mirren was treated like a queen, even if she only played one in a movie. She even got to meet with the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog.
On his meeting with Halen Mirren, President Herzog said, “Not every day does one get to meet an Oscar winning movie star, 2 queens of England, & an Israeli prime minister all in one.”
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At a press conference in the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem, Helen Mirren lauded Golda Meir.
“Golda is one of the most extraordinary characters I’ve ever played,” said Helen Mirren. “Her history, her commitment to her country, her character in general. She had utter dedication to her country. Her commitment to her country was over everything — over family, over personal contentment, over personal ambition.”
“She had immense power, but as you know it was called ‘Golda’s Kitchen Cabinet,’ and she was perfectly happy to toddle around in the kitchen making everyone coffee and playing the grandmotherly role,” Helen Mirren said of how being a nation’s leader was different for Golda Meir because she was a woman.
And that, Mirren added about Golda Meir, “It’s a very different attitude to power, but it’s still immense power.”
In “Golda” Helen Mirren, who won the Oscar award for best actress in 2007 for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the movie “The Queen” portrays Golda Meir at the single worst moment in the Israeli leader’s life – the disaster and the crisis of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Golda focuses on the “intensely dramatic and high-stakes” responsibilities and decisions that Golda Meir, also known as the “’Iron Lady of Israel” faced during the Yom Kippur War.
So, as in “The Queen,” Helen Mirren does not perform in a full biopic, but portrays a woman at a seminal moment in her life.
Meir never recovered politically from the failures leading up to the war which was a national disaster for Israel. Eight months after the war ended, and even after winning re-election at the polls a month after the war, Meir was forced to resign as prime minister and retired from politics entirely.
Unfortunately, the critics are not so impressed with the film. Movie review website Rotten Tomatoes gives just a 42% rating.
