There’s a stifling quality to this portrait of Israeli prime minister Golda Meir (Helen Mirren, encased in spongy-looking layers of prosthetics), even before she has filled every frame with a fug of secondhand smoke. Unfolding over the brief, traumatic 19 days of the Yom Kippur war in 1973, the film plays out in sombre war rooms and oppressive offices. But for a couple of rooftop cigarette breaks and a trip to meet the troops, it could almost be a single-location stage play.
Director Guy Nattiv opens up the story by giving the PM stark visions of the conflict. And the score – metallic, jarring – adds tension. But Golda, forever peering beadily over an overfilled ashtray, remains oddly underdeveloped as a character.
