A LETTERED SOUL: REFLECTIONS ON LITERATURE, CINEMA AND CULTURE .

THROUGH ERAS AND YEARS: diverse works committed to screen.

I had the opportunity to watch these diverse works over the last three and a half months. Some are more widely known than others but it’s time to give each storytelling form and cohesive vision espoused by these a fair and equal chance. One of them I finished watching last week .

So here they are, diverse life-scripts committed to screen through eras and covering material spread across decades.

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A WOMAN CALLED GOLDA(1982)

While reading about Ingrid Bergman’s filmography, I was fortunate to discover her final work in the form of this four hour, two part CBS television film that saw her valiantly portray the founding mother of modern day Israel Golda Meir.

What an incredibly poignant and robust tale of an individual who left the comforts of her life in America to arrive at a contentious landmark in erstwhile Palestine, to the far reaches of another continent and alien culture, in hopes of uniting the Jewish community at the site of the Promised Land denied to them for millenia.

It was a long cherished dream and to a common mind a distant fantasy. But this incredible visual presentation captures her sturdiness, strides as a political icon and a woman of substance who turned the dream into reality, knowing very well that fractious borders and neighbouring middle Eastern countries can threaten it with civil war anytime. A true statesman, she tided over all of these obstacles and more to make her own way. Hats off to the global community of Jews who gave their blood, sweat and toil to truly honour that overwhelming vision for the Promised Land.

A WOMAN CALLED GOLDA absorbs the mobility of those efforts on the ground with a graceful structure of her biographical trajectory and escapes the time-honoured warp of sexism to show her as her own person who didn’t let gender so much as occupy her passing thoughts. Her thoughts were with her people and the same sense of dignity, temperate humour and above all an obstinacy to achieve statehood for Israel get transported to Ingrid Bergman’s exquisite performance. You never doubt her embodiment of the lady’s temperament and spirit. Also, the parallels between her and Golda are striking in terms of their last years and death by terminal disease. As also by their service to humanity till the very end.

Assembling a diverse crew of able performers including Leonard Nimoy and Judy Davis, shot on location in Israel, scored and cinematographed with the sweep of its history unwavering, this is a true life legend recounted with rare cinematic integrity. Created without sentimental overtures to melodrama. You must watch it, available as it is easily on YouTube. As it employs the narrative technique adjunct with GOLDA’s visit to her school in Wisconsin, the relaying of her personal life to children makes it imperative for posterity.