Golda starring Helen Mirren shot in Neasden school

Wearing heavy prosthetics to play the country's first female prime minister, Golda Meir, she gazes out at the distant battle of the Yom Kippur war.

"We dropped in a skyline of Tel Aviv but she was actually looking out across Neasden," says Nicholas Martin, scriptwriter of Golda.

The film was shot in an empty Neasden school with the gym and school hall standing in for a cabinet room and Golda's Tel Aviv home (Image: Bleccker Street)

In fact most of the movie was shot in the abandoned Swaminaryan School in Brentfield Road, which the set designers brilliantly transformed into 1970s Israel.

"They had a big car park, a hall with high ceilings, and lots of classrooms - all the things we needed to make the film," he says.

"We built the Tel Aviv cabinet room in the gym, and Golda's house in the dining hall, and the chemistry lab became a hospital. It was a bit odd, but it worked very well."The film focuses on the Yom Kippur war in 1973 when Israel was attacked on the Jewish holy day by a coalition of Egypt and Syria (Image: Bleecker Street)

During the 2021 shoot, the empty primary school was also being used for Covid vaccinations.

"People would wander onto our set looking for a jab, and we'd tell them they were in the wrong place, just as Helen Mirren walked in dressed as Golda Meir."

The star even visited neighbouring Neasden Temple for a tour.

"She's so game, the most consummate diplomat, when the Temple heard she was at the school, they invited her for a tour, and even though she had been up at 4.30am and done a full day's work, she ripped off the latex and spent an hour thanking them for letting us use it."Wolverine star Liev Schreiber plays Dr Henry Kissinger in Golda, which transformed a Neasden school into Golda Meir's Tel Aviv home (Image: Bleecker Street)

Golda focuses on the October 1973 conflict when a coalition of Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur.

Mirren gives an extraordinary performance as the steely, chain-smoking 75-year-old, passionately protecting her country, while shouldering the high-stakes responsibility of sending young men to their deaths.

"I was searching for the moment in her life that told us everything we needed to know about her," says Martin, who takes part in a Q&A at JW3 on October 5 and at The Phoenix in East Finchley on October 8.

"I'm interested in older people and the moments where their life experience comes together. For Golda the war was when her enormous experience fell into place; she survived the Pogroms in Russsia, had lived in America and understood it, and was there at the birth of Israel and the war of Independence."Helen Mirren plays the chain-smoking steely 75-year-old Prime Minister forced to make tough decisions during the war (Image: Bleecker Street)

Mirren captures the "iron fist in the velvet glove" of a woman who would take soup and sandwiches to Navy Seals in Haifa harbour yet understood the compromises of war.

"She waved them off like a grandmother sending her grandson to a football game, knowing full well they were going to kill people. She maintained her humanity, while understanding completely that the world is a dangerous place.

"At a time when grown men were bursting into tears, she was like a rock. She knew her own mind, was comfortable in her own skin and like all great leaders there was a modesty to her. She knew she would be blamed for the surprise attack and wasn't going to emerge in a positive light, but that allowed her to make good decisions, not defensive ones to save her own reputation."The private Swaminarayan School closed in 2019 (Image: Archant)

The film has been overshadowed by a row over whether non Jewish actors should play Jewish roles, with Bradley Cooper (Bernstein) and Cilian Murphy (Oppenheimer) also in the spotlight.

"I get that identity politics is the thing that everyone is talking about, but I find it frustrating that it's an issue very few people find relevant and only a small group have a problem with," says Martin.

"I couldn't be more impressed with Helen's extraordinary patience, while we've been promoting Golda, she dealt with the whole identity question a hundred times when she really wants to be talking about the film.Helen Mirren's acting career started in the mid-1960s and has seen her star in the likes of Calendar Girls, Gosford Park and Fast and Furious (Image: Bleecker Street)

"Talent is the only thing that matters - finding the best person who will do a good job. It's the intent we bring to the project that's important, Golda's family are thrilled with her performance and it was recieved with adulation in Israel, where it has outsold Barbie and Oppenheimer."

Martin adds that without Mirren "there was absolutely no chance of this film being made".

"In some respects Golda and Helen are cut from similar cloth," he added. "She has survived 50 years in a tough industry, through toughness and talent. I have been impressed by her indefatigable energy.

"Helen doesn't have to work, and get up at 4am, and put up with the endless questions. On the last day of the shoot, when I was on my knees with the endless torture of making a film, she said 'I did enjoy that, I would like to do it again'."

Golda is in cinemas from Friday October 6.