Berlin Film Festival: Golda, Helen Mirren and too much smoke aren’t enough to save Jay Nattif’s story

There is a scene in Golda to Jay Nativ This is worth the entire movie. This is concentrated in the minutes of the dialogue face to face Starring the Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time Henry Kissinger. Essential Dialogue of Israel’s Destiny and the Cold War – Without Imposing It – a stark illustration of many aspects of the contemporary international balance. Paradox wants the two leaders to meet in Meir’s kitchen, and she offers soup to her “friend” Henry. We are in the midst of the Yom Kippur War, and it happened surprisingly Tel AvivRequires the signing of a peace treaty with Sadat And the happiest To avoid direct confrontation with Russia. She replied that in exchange she wanted Egypt and Syria to recognize the State of Israel, and all Israeli victims and prisoners returned with respect. Then she adds that, as a Ukrainian Jew, she witnessed anti-Semitic harassment of her family by the Russians, before her father immigrated to the United States, followed by little Golda who would train there before settling in Tel Aviv, then Palestine. In this subdued and tense dialogue between Jews from different countries who must respond to the security of their people, there is part of great cinema and a world of contemporary meaning, not least of the current war between Russia and Ukraine, although the film was most likely written before the invasion of February 24, 2022.

Unfortunately, aside from this dramatic spectacle and high repetition value the sublime always delivers Helen Mirren, “transputata” in Golda, H Liev Schreiber As Kissinger, the Israeli film Nattiv, was presented at its world premiere last night at the 73 Berlinale (Berlinale Special Section) It does not offer a cinematic quality worthy of narration and history. no Biographybut the story of the Meir administration surrounding twenty dramatic days during which the bloody war was going on Yom Kippur in October 1973And Golda Lacking cinematic edge, commentary and feel, it bets everything on talent queen Mirren – outfitted in heavy prosthetic makeup – imitatively steps into the ailing but rugged body of one of the last century’s most charismatic leaders, portrayed with virtues and virtues, not bereft of her controversial choices. Too bad, because it is understood that the text is well documented in historical facts and events – the authors have collected not only official materials, but also and above all documents that were kept secret until 10 years ago, including the memoirs of an elderly Kissinger – but the film that comes across as resolute Extremely in keeping him away from doubts and ambiguities about the truth.

to be sure, Golda Meir He mourns and counts all of his dead and wounded soldiers, but the contextual background that would have made the story three-dimensional is lacking. Besides the roar of pounding, shots and screams, and the backfire of those watching and listening from the monitors and radios placed in the war room Tel Aviv, to be saved is just a metaphor smoking (Golda was an obsessive smoker) that obscures the truth (even in Meir’s perception), and the claustrophobic oppression that the film presents properly. For the rest, we are as far from the symbolic – and therefore cinematic – power of Israeli works in their controversial military world as those created by Samuel Maoz (Lebanon, foxtrot) or Ari Vollman (Bashir dance), just to give some headlines. The movie will soon be released in Italy by 01.