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Ida poster

CAST
AGATA KULESZA
AGATA TRZEBUCHOWSKA
DAVID OGRODNIK
HALINA SKOCZYNSKA
ADAM SZYSZKOWSKI
JERZY TRELA

WRITTEN BY
REBECCA LENKIEWICZ
PAWEL PAWLIKOWSKI

PRODUCED BY
ERIC ABRAHAM
PIOTR DZIECIOL
EWA PUSZCZYNSKA

DIRECTED BY
PAWEL PAWLIKOWSKI

GENRE
DRAMA

RATED
AUS: M
UK: NA
USA: PG-13

RUNNING TIME
80 MIN

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TRAILERS & CLIPS

IDA (2014)

The crossroads between faith and ethnicity begins a journey where the secrets of the past haunt the decisions of the present in the engrossing Ida.

Imagine, living your life believing you are one thing only to find out you are something else entirely. That is what happens to Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska), a novice Catholic nun who agrees to meet her long estranged aunt Wanda (Agata Kulesza) before taking her vows.

Yet this family reunion comes bearing secrets. Anna is in fact Ida, and her Jewish parents were murdered during WWII. Wanda delivers the news with a matter of fact coldness. Anna absorbs the news with quiet shock that leads to a strong desire for answers.

Thus begins a road trip for those answers through the winter chill of 1960s Communist Poland. Usually these types of scenarios can lead to forced, Odd Couple style exchanges between the mismatched pair, yet writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski lets the interplay between Trzebuchowska and Kulesza come about naturally.

Of course they play types. As Wanda, Trzebuchowska is the instigator, agitator and truth seeker of crimes past, hiding a tragedy fuelled fragility through a steady diet of booze, cigarettes and men, while prodding the religious convictions of her niece.

Kulesza in return is all meek and mild, absorbing these explosive revelations with a quiet dignity that masks an inner turmoil between love and devotion for her Catholic faith, and the loyalty to her new found ethnicity.

Such religious devotion can be quite powerful, yet is never the less put to the test through various temptations, and the confronting horror of evil atrocities that were played out not that long prior in the unfounded, despicable anti-Semitism that reached its horrific peak during WWII, with millions killed merely for being Jewish. It’s a horror that still leaves a stench and that pierces the souls of these two women as they try to bring closure to a dramatic period in their lives.

Strangely Pawlikowski does not focus that same magnifying glass to the persecution Polish Catholics endured during the decades of Communist rule, (which incidentally inspired Polish Pope John Paul II to take the fight to Communist totalitarianism). It is quite a missed opportunity for a film headlined by one character of devout Catholicism and another associated with the Poland’s Communist government of that time.  

Regardless, Ida is a sad and poignant story, beautifully shot in black and white by Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zal, with there still framed shots telling a thousand stories.

Even though it runs for a lean 80 minutes there is a lot to find and absorb from Ida, a film that stirs emotions and begs us never to forget that the biggest atrocities can have the most intimate of outcomes.     

****
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