The film ‘Ida’ is a work that stays with you, and adds dimension to life.
Said Roger Ebert about why he championed the medium of film: ‘We live in a box of space and time. Movies are windows in its walls.’
That quote came to mind during the process of watching ‘Ida,’ and in the days and weeks following. Pawel Pawlikowski’s film is a painterly act of contemplation and one to compare with any of the greatest films made about the nature of faith, which is but one of the aspect about what it means to be human that the film grapples with. Its story is specific, and unique even to its already particular setting (1960s Poland), but its rendering, patience, and the afforded depths of insight are universal.
Anna (Agata Trzebokowska) is a young orphan and a training nun on the verge of taking her vows of stability when she learns, from her sole living relative, Wanda (Agneta Kulesza), that her birth name is actually Ida, and she was taken to the convent at a young age to avoid the same fate as her Jewish family, who were killed during the second World War. Her aunt Wanda was a high ranking judge with Communist affiliations: a dark past that informs her indulges of spirits, and more. Together, the try to locate the whereabouts of Ida’s family’s remains, patching together known history and scraps of hearsay gathered from the taciturn locals.
Ida’s deliberate pacing and focused, extended takes evoke the practice of prayer, while straining, by way of its complete lack of character judgment, that such behavior is of worth, whether a higher power exists or not. Trzebokowska’s reserved performance is her first, and a sign of a great talent; the film is Pawlikowski’s tenth, and by itself commands his previous works be sought out for greater exposure.
‘Ida’ plays at the GoggleWorks Film Theatre starting Friday, June 27.
Robert Humanick is a contributing writer for slantmagazine.com.