A quiet film about a quiet novitiate nun might not spell party time but Ida's tale of a young Polish woman's confrontation with the past is compelling. 1962. Anna, on the verge of taking holy orders, must contact her only living relative as a means of completing her farewell to the secular world. Her aunt Wanda tells her that her real name is Ida which revelation is followed by a string of others that leaves Anna/Ida needing to reset her identity. Like everyone else her story emerged from the recent world war with scars which she only now can see. Wanda, defiantly bohemian, invites her niece into the pleasures and conflicts of life outside. Ida has some decisions to make.Pawel Pawlikowski's career entered the international realm with Ida, transcending the festival circuit to get cinema releases the world over. Shot in deep and frozen monochrome within an old fashioned 1:37 frame, this film might remind you of middle European films from the time of the setting of this one like Closely Observed Trains or Larks on a String. Pawlikowski followed it with an even deeper dive into the post war era with the powerful Cold War. Like that film Ida benefits from its director's expert touch, unflinching in the presence of difficult morality but light enough to avoid fatigue. All of this and it's still only one hour and twenty minutes long.
Join me.
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