Ida - Movie review

Ida (2013)  - Polish

Cast : Agata Kulessza, Agata Trzebuchowska

Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski

Review by Zulfiqar – (rating 4/5)

            Before being christened into her sisterhood at the nunnery, Ida is informed of the presence of an old relative. She seeks out her aunt (mother’s sister) and is learnt that she is jewish by birth and her parents along with her cousin (aunt’s son) were executed during the genocide. Ida takes the journey with her aunt to find out about the perpetrators.

            Set in the post-holocaust Poland, ‘Ida’ is a representation of two characters, who are diametrically opposite in their characterizations. Ida’s aunt wants retribution for her son’s end. While Ida just is hanging around for curiosity about her past. But she is more concerned about her faith. The thing that she has a living relative sinks very slowly for her. And knowing about parents, more so. But she is more battled internally about the dilemma about her faith. She probably has thoughts deciding, which religion she should choose. But more importantly she doesn’t have proper protocol for dealing with the death of her parents. She couldn’t bring to it emotionally altogether. When she and her aunt visit the forest-grave, Ida doesn’t show anything on her face, while her aunt crumbles holding her son’s remain of a skull.

            After confronting the people who caused these atrocities, both the ladies are at quandary as to how to deal with it. The aunt, despite being the juror in her life, doesn’t have the heart or will to fight for it. Probably, because she doesn’t see the purpose of anything, after seeing her son’s remains. She is a lost soul, a slave to spirits. She has no ambitions of a social life and remains a recluse. But then in Ida, she sees the magic of youth, but how the girl ignores her charming attributes. She laments on these thoughts, but who knows, she probably thinks that faith has answers for her niece.

            Ida exactly has the opposite feelings. Having confronted the ordinary life with her aunt and coming across a handsome man, she ponders if she is living a life of sham at the convent. She feels she wants to live a life of want. When her aunt commits suicide, Ida lives the life of her aunt and would have continued doing so, if not when her boyfriend answers a simple question. She asks what would they do with future and he replies, ‘the usual, marriage and kids’.

            This is where Ida balks. Director Pawel Pawlikowski shows the whole impact of the movie in the closing scenes. Ida goes back to being the nun. This is where she understands her whole life. She fears for her future family, who may have the uncertainty of some calamitous happening. This is where probably all her relationships from her aunt to parents spring up and she resorts to a serene, duller life than a life, which would ruin her completely.

            By not showing much about holocaust and holding a very little dialogue about the biggest atrocity in history, the director compels the viewer to understand the cruel and vulgar blot on humanity. Holocaust not only maimed the physical life of people but caused much mental and spiritual anguish, during and aftermath. It remained as a worst remainder of the worst of humanity. Ida is that spiritual anguish.

            Done in a monochromatic hue, the movie depicts in its pictorial palette, the long rural shots of polish suburbs during the 1960s. It has semblance of background footage in ‘Shoah’, which has the similar dilapidated architecture of polish towns.

            The director however brings to notice many abstract thoughts during the 80 minutes of its running time. Like when, Ida’s aunt asks why the bartender says sorry that somebody was dead. He replies isn’t that the way. It shows how the apology is ingrained as customary habit rather than true apologetic. Being an abstract piece of cinema, it may have many foods for thought. But it evokes in us to remember what happened in one section of community at one point of time in history. This recalling is a must for we should know the wounds properly to avoid them.