Ida
Composite Score: 86.7
Starring: Agata Kulesza, Agata Trzebuchowska, Dawid Ogrodnik, Jerzy Trela, Adam Szyszkowski, Halina Skoczynska, Joanna Kulig, and Dorota Kuduk
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Writers: Pawel Pawlikowski and Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Genres: Drama, History, Mystery
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, some sexuality, and smoking
Box Office: $11.16 million worldwide
My take on Watching This Film:
Ida is Pawel Pawlikowski’s film about young Polish woman in the 1960s about to take her vows to become a nun after being raised in a convent when her parents died during World War II. The film follows Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) as she returns to her only surviving relative, an aunt, whom she has never met, named Wanda Gruz (Agata Kulesza) who reveals that Anna was in fact born into a Jewish family and named Ida. Their brief time together is spent in search of the resting place of Anna/Ida’s murdered parents while also uncovering truths about themselves in the process – Wanda processing her own grief from the losses of the Holocaust and the years since World War II and Anna discovering the temptations of the world before she fully commits herself to God. It’s a beautifully acted, compellingly told, and gorgeously shot film that won a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in addition to a nomination for Best Cinematography. Fans of Holocaust stories, family dramas, and character studies will be assuredly pleased with this brief but poignant film about finding yourself, discovering your family, and living your own life in the midst of generational horrors and trauma. If you’ve never seen any of Pawlikowski’s other films, this might not be the easiest entry to his work, as Cold War offers a lighter (but somehow darker) subject matter and storyline, but fans of that film will certainly enjoy this one as well, especially the performances of the two leading ladies and the consistently gorgeous black and white cinematography. Pawlikowski’s film is certainly deserving of recognition among the greats and just might make it onto your own list of favorites as well. You can currently stream this film via Amazon Prime Video if you’d like to see for yourself, and I can’t see why you wouldn’t with its easy runtime of 82 minutes.
