Ida (DVD)

US Import

18-year old Anna (newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska), a sheltered orphan raised in a convent, is preparing to become a nun. When the Mother Superior insists she first visit her sole living relative, naïve and innocent Anna soon finds herself in the presence of her aunt Wanda (Agata Kulesza), a worldly and cynical Communist Party insider who shocks Anna with the declaration that her real name is Ida and her Jewish parents were murdered during the Nazi occupation. This revelation triggers a heart-wrenching journey to the family house and into the secrets of the repressed past, evoking the haunting atrocities caused by the war and the realities of postwar Communism.

Evocatively written, powerfully acted and eloquently shot in black-and-white, Ida is as much a masterful evocation of a time, a dilemma, and a defining historical moment as it is a personal, intimate, and universally human tale about faith, survival and loss.

The winner of the International Critics Award for Pawel Pawlikowski at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, Ida also brought home the Best Film prize at the London Film Festival and the Warsaw Film Festival in 2013. Festival acclaim continued the following year, with Ida wining the Best Narrative Feature Awards at the Cinequest Film Festival, the Sarasota Film Festival and the River Run Film Festival. Ida was awarded the Best Film, Best director Best Editing and Best Actress (Agata Kulesza) statuettes at the 2014 Polish Film Awards.