Just perfect...

Admirable film.

A Major Disappointment

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

I read some of the reviews here and was quite surprised about the negativity. I had seen the movie some time ago and re-watched it selectively today after a conversation I had yesterday about the movie with a Polish friend. So the movie is "melodramatic", the story is improbable, just another predictable Holocaust drama, Agata Trzebuchowska (playing Ida) cannot act, the plot is not pure enough … and so it goes on. I grew up in post-war Berlin, in the West, being clearly aware of life behind the iron curtain. My Polish friend grew up in post-war Poland. The atmosphere of the movie is drenched in the big Eastern European post-war gray. I doubt many reviewers here on IMDb know this big gray from their own experience. They never saw it, they never heard of it, they couldn't tell whether it's authentic or not. Let me assure you: it is. This movie takes place in a perfectly subdued setting, the boredom or suffocation or meaninglessness in its naturally slow pace is omnipresent and revokes those almost forgotten times. Instead of interpreting this as "mannerism" it should be taken for what it is: a true reminiscence. And so are the moments of freedom and joy of life, which could easily be suppressed at any time for each individual but not for society as a whole. Ida's love scenes are not acted well? Is that supposed to be a joke? It's acted perfectly well. In fact, it could not be any better. It's heartbreaking. And so is the whole development of her quiet character. And, yes, it does develop. It grows up. Wanda's entanglement being victim and offender at the same time has the proportions of Greek tragedy. It may be exaggerated or rather excessive and therefore melodramatic. It still is lame against the reality of the Holocaust. I loved Wanda because she was strong, alive and fragile, I cried for her when I learned about her son, I pitied her, because I knew she was cruel and merciless almost as a matter of course. Her cruelty was a reflection of another much bigger cruelty. Is that so clichéd? She had no right to survive (this movie) – maybe that was a Hollywood-moment. Who cares? Great impressive movie for people who don't mind a little pathos and big feelings. All who prefer pop-culture life-style movies should stay away. You'll hate this movie and, frankly, I would not really care to educate you.

Small but brilliant film that claims a cinematographic language, sometimes forgotten, in which each shot and each picture is a fine work of jewelry in black and white. I am thinking in Bergman and of course in The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). A movie of minimal artifice, meticulous in each shot but austere, about clear and light intimacy, made of simple visual harmony. Its succession of perfect images provides a very pleasant aesthetic experience. A simple heroic journey of a strange couple (aunt and niece) with conflicts portrayed through discreet, serene and restrained interpretations but that are very believable regarding the environment in which the story unfolds. Highly recommended although just for public who could enjoy with the preciosity of a vintage photo exhibition.

"In the end, everything is found to be wanting." - Frank Lentricchia, The Sadness of AntonioniSet in the post-World War II Poland, the film traverses the life events of a Christian orphan, nun-to-be – Ida, who just weeks before taking her oath meets her only living relative - a long-lost Jewish aunt - Wanda; and subsequently came along the unknown memories of a long- lost childhood. In their brief association, they travel to the countryside to know the whereabouts of her dead parents where Ida buries the tragedy of her murdered and much-unknown Jewish family along with the reasons of her own survival, thereby returning to her convent to continue her journey ahead, thus marking the necessary re-dissociation with her alcoholic, tramp-like, unstable aunt (the irony), but ends up having the very doubts towards her choice to abnegate the world. With a heavy heart, she decides not to take her oath; however, she wasn't alone – her aunt ends up taking drastic steps to rest her own doubts.In order to attend the funeral, Ida gets another opportunity to associate a little more with her unknown roots. She returns to the quarters of her then deceased aunt and is tempted to live nights with the philandering ways of her once only-living-relative – of liquor, smoking and men. She accepts the course of life coming her way - that of the materialistic world, full of carnal passion. Although, she seemed not herself and the next morning Ida leaves for her old life at the convent – to become the person that she sought out to be.The Polish film noir displays a distinctive story-telling and abstract cinematography. As we see Ida's world in "black and white" we realise that though all humans seem good and evil, they are not; instead they are 'ironically' different shades of grey - both good and evil. When the pious, untouched heart of a sister is tinged by them, she is bound to be attracted and even so - deviated from her path of renouncement. The life as we know it worked like a vaccine for a nun-to-be, and then this spiritually lost girl emerged out immune to all the attractions that the world could offer. Director Pawel Pawlokowski, who won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language film for this work, may have given his viewers a lot more than usual cinema experience to think of. Anna Trzebuchowska as Ida, is diminutively beautiful in her portrayal of a sister; however, Anna Kulesza as Ida's aunt is the most impressive amongst the cast with her alcoholic, drained out, yet fighter-like persona. "Subtly attractive; 7/10"

I don't know if the Polish foreign flick "Ida" deserved the Best Foreign Film Oscar last year, but Ida tell you that it was a moderate piece. Director Pawel Pawlikowski's movie stars Agata Trzebuchowska as Anna, a young nun who resides in a Polish covenant. Through circumstance, Anna finds out that her real name is Ida, that she is Jewish, and that her parents were killed in the war. Anna/Ida goes on a quest to find where her parents are buried, and she meets her reckless aunt Wanda, brilliantly played by Agata Kulesza. Both Ida and Wanda try to find some answers on what really happened to Ida's parents, and then... Ida not tell you some more, cause Ida know how angry one gets when they reveal movie spoilers. Anyways, Pawilkowski did not wowski me with his direction of the picture, but enough to moderately recommend it; if for no better reason, Kulesza's performance and the film's stunning cinematography. Maybe Ida see this movie again to capture more of it, but Ida tell you that it's not near the top of the best foreign films I have ever seen. I'm Ida here! *** Average