Golda

  • Mountainfilm

she circled the globe throughout the 60s and 70s, meeting presidents, kings and ministers, giving speeches and interviews, gaining recognition for her strong views and unapologetic attitude. She was an international icon.

Year

2019

Length

88 min

Directors

Sagi Bornstein, Udi Nir, Shani Rozanes

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The result of the 1974 Gallup poll of the most admired woman in America was no surprise in the United States – Golda Meir, the Israeli Prime Minister who spent her adolescence in Milwaukee, was on top again. A groundbreaking female politician with a long standing career in the public service, she circled the globe throughout the 60s and 70s, meeting presidents, kings and ministers, giving speeches and interviews, gaining recognition for her strong views and unapologetic attitude. She was an international icon.

In her home state of Israel, on the other hand, 1974 was the year of her demise. The 75-year-old Prime Minister was forced to step down just one month after being reelected. The masses were angry and sad, still shocked and deeply traumatized by the wounds of the 1973 October War.

The first female prime minister in the world with no family ties to her predecessors, the poor Jewish girl fleeing the Pogroms in Kiev, the mother, leader, and pioneer was now only being seen as a symbol of failure. What was before celebrated as persistence came to be seen as stubbornness, her pride seen as hubris, and her simplicity as prudence. 50 years of public work ending on an extremely bad note.

And so – 40 years after her death – Meir’s memory and perception in the public eye is minor to negli- gible. The world has moved on to Thatcher, Hillary Clinton and Merkel, and in Israel she is considered the “wrong” woman to admire.

Madam Prime Minister invites the viewers to take a second look into the life and work of this complex woman who reigned Israel in crucial years, and who played a pivotal role in many major internal and external conflicts which are still shaping and challenging the state of Israel and global politics to this day.

Interviews with eye-witnesses like Zvi Zamir, former head of the Mossad, Meron Medzini, the spokesperson of Meir when she was prime minister, Madelene Albright, Uri Avnery, former member of the Knesset and one of Meir’s biggest critics, and finally her grandchildren Gidi Meir and Shaul Rachavi help us reconstruct the biography of a complex and fascinating woman that doesn’t fit into classical categories.

Directed by
Sagi Bornstein
Udi Nir
Shani Rozanes

Original Music 
Adam Ben Ezra

Narrator
Udi Nir

Cinematography
Eitan Hatuka

Editor
Sagi Bornstein

Script Editor
Gal Goffer

Sound Design & Mix
Nimrod Eldar

Historical Advisor
Hans-Hermann Hertle

Colourist
Michal Vaadia

Archival Research
Dagan Wald

Line Producer
Kathrin Isberner

Associate Producer
Nina Hölzl

Producers
Christian Beetz
Georg Tschurtschenthaler
Sagi Bornstein
Udi Nir

 

Golda
Trailer
  • „Just in diesem Moment überraschen uns die aus dem Theaterbereich stammenden jungen Regisseure Hans Block und Moritz Riesewieck mit einem erstaunlichen Dokumentarfilm, der seit Monaten Publikum und Kritik auf den wichtigsten Festivals der Welt elektrisiert. Völlig zu Recht: Es ist, als würden einem die Scheuklappen weggerissen, als sähe man das, was sich seit Jahren direkt vor unseren Augen abspielt, zum ersten Mal unverschleiert... eine fesselnde ,Doku noir' mit höchstem Anspruch...Dieser Film müsste an allen Schulen gezeigt werden.“
    Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
    17.05.2018

A production by

  • Beetz
  • udi

In association with

  • arte
  • br
  • ici rdi

Supported by

  • arte