Trivia

Viewers who know little about the life history of Golda Meir may be surprised to hear the British actress Helen Mirren performing the role of an Israeli prime minster with an American accent. In fact, Meir, who was born in present-day Ukraine, grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after her family immigrated to America when she was about eight years old. The elementary school she attended, Fourth Street School, is now called the Golda Meir School for Gifted and Talented Students. She stayed in the United States until her early twenties, when she made aliyah (immigrated) to the land then known as British Mandate of Palestine.

Helen Mirren would spend 3.5 hours in the makeup chair to be transformed into Golda.

The cabinet room is an exact replica of the cabinet meeting room which currently resides in the Kirya base in Tel-Aviv. The house in which it resides was built in 1930 by a couple who fled the country after WWII broke out, at which point the British military seized it. In 1948, David Ben-Gurion decided it would become the official residence of the government. In 2006, after Ariel Sharon's final term as prime minister, the official residence of the government moved from the house, and after being preserved and renovated it now serves as a visitor center of the general staff of the IDF.

Helen Mirren is smoking in every scene of the movie. Real-life Golda Meir was a heavy smoker, at the level of lighting one cigarette off another one, even smoking during medical procedures (as it's seen in the movie).

The song at the end of the movie is "Who by Fire" by Leonard Cohen. It is based on a prayer said by Jews during the High Holidays - most notably Yom Kippur - called "Unetanneh Tokef" ("Let us speak of the awesomeness"). The song is further relevant to the theme of the movie because Cohen traveled to Israel in October 1973 to perform a series of concerts, which inspired him to write this song which appeared on his 1974 album, "New Skin for the Old Ceremony." This period in Cohen's career is discussed in a book titled "Who by Fire" by Matti Friedman (2022), as well as many other podcasts and articles.