Q&A: ‘Golda’ director Guy Nattiv seeks to soften, deepen the memory of Golda Meir

By JOCELYN NOVECK
AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — As Israel’s first and only female prime minister, Golda Meir may have broken a glass ceiling. But she had a prickly relationship with feminism, a label she did not embrace. Still, argues director Guy Nattiv, the trajectory of Meir’s career — especially the nature of the public blame she received for early losses in the 1973 war with a coalition of Arab states — was very much connected to her gender. In “Golda,” starring Helen Mirren, Nattiv seeks to reintroduce a woman many Israelis still recall with ambivalence. Aside from examining the issue of wartime blame, Nattiv presents a Meir who, despite a tough veneer, was plagued by doubt, anxiety and illness.