Director Guy Nattiv calls for new Israeli and Palestinian leadership
Oscar-winner and ‘Golda’ lead actress Helen Mirren accept special award at Berlin’s Cinema for Peace Foundation
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Oscar-winning Israeli director Guy Nattiv called for new Israeli and Palestinian leadership, as he and British actress Dame Helen Mirren won an award Monday for the film “Golda” at the Cinema for Peace Foundation event in Berlin.
Nattiv said in his speech that it was after the traumatic 1973 Yom Kippur War that governments and leaders changed, leading then-Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and then-Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to sign the 1979 peace treaty between their two countries.
“This time, too,” said Nattiv, “we want to see a new Israeli and Palestinian leadership with the vision and courage to make historic peace between the two peoples.”
The honorary Dove of Cinema for Peace award was given to Nattiv and Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren for their joint work in the 2023 film “Golda,” the historical biopic Nattiv directed starring Mirren as renowned Israeli prime minister Golda Meir during the Yom Kippur War.
It was a first for the award, given against the backdrop of rising antisemitism around the world following the Hamas attack of October 7, when terrorists killed some 1,200 people and abducted 253 to Gaza from Israel’s border communities.
The award was presented to Nattiv and Mirren onstage in Berlin by 102-year-old Holocaust survivor Margot Friedlander.
“Golda” also won the main prize for Cinema for Peace, which it shared with “One Life,” directed by James Hawes, and “The Zone Of Interest,” by director Jonathan Glazer.
The Times of Israel Community.