Ida, 2013.
Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski.
Starring Agata Trzebuchowska, Agata Kulesza, Dawid Ogrodnik, Jerzy Trela and Adam Szyszkowski.
SYNOPSIS:
A young novice nun is preparing to take her vows when a long lost aunt brings alternately illuminating and harrowing news of a life she never knew existed…
Ida, more than anything else, is a film concerned with the weight of history. Its emotionally charged brush strokes and fine illustration are delicately measured in detailed frames of overbearing beauty. Featuring an incredible debut performance from the central actor Trzebuchowska, this haunting study of the past’s bearing on the present and potential theft of the future is essential viewing for any student of the 20th Century, cinema or society. In effect then, everyone. ‘Important’ without ever being dogmatic or over the top, the raw intensity of dreamlike, yet very real, interaction between the characters operates as a journey through the human condition and the workings of memory.
Focusing on the young Anna’s (Trzebuchowska) epiphany that she and her family are in fact Jewish, and that she narrowly avoided death by being left on the church steps, she discovers from her newly acquired Aunt Wanda (Kulesza) that her birth name is Ida and that she is the sole survivor of her immediate family. The newly reunited aunt and niece then embark on something of a tour through the darklands of memory and identity, and come to learn perhaps more than they wished about the world and its workings.
Shot in a crisp polarity of nouvelle-vague style black and white, Ida has something of a timeless quality about it. A classic jazz and early 1960s pop soundtrack filtering through the hotel bar scenes add weight the juxtaposition of the austere and vaguely reproachful atmosphere of Anna’s convent life with the free and easy colourful (and loud) world outside. Central to this contextualising of opposing worldviews is the character of the charming beatnik jazz saxophonist who the newly named Ida takes a reciprocal liking to. Representative of a Europe (and a world) attempting to come to terms with war time atrocities, this jazz playing character creates a sweet sound of doubt in the young woman’s mind.
But in many ways, it is the story of Wanda that is the most compelling. A successful magistrate and prominent member of the ruling Socialist Party, she is a powerful symbol for how all of us, are to various degrees, shaped and moulded by the past. A hard drinking and wittily acerbic character, she acts as a very different form of teacher to the nuns in Anna’s convent.
Packing in an epic novel’s worth of universal truths and haunting imagery into its stark 80 minutes, Ida works with great subtlety in displaying contrasting opposing forces and insights into life of all kinds. It is a film destined to work long in the memory and the imagination of its audience.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert W Monk is a freelance journalist and film writer.
Originally published October 31, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
