There are many reasons why Ida
has surfaced as one of 2014’s most prominent films. Having won countless awards,
accolades and international praise with a tirade of support from the BFI Film
Festival, there is a lot to be said about this little film from Poland. On a
glance watching its deceptively unrevealing trailer, it is only fair for one to
assume Ida to be nothing more than a bleak overdone and overused story of a ‘repressed’
and ‘guilty’ nun shot in a glossy monochrome filter. Why waste time watching a countlessly regurgitated
story when you can hark back to reliable timeless classics such as Black Narcissus
in wonderful Technicolor?! Yes, Ida upon a glance may be deceptive but do not
be fooled. Do not let assumptions get the better of your judgement.
The set-up is simple; set in
Poland some years after the Second World War, Ida tells the story of Anna, an
eighteen-year-old woman, preparing to become a nun at the convent where she has
lived since orphaned as a child. Learning she has one living relative left, her
Aunt Wanda, she is forced by her Sister Superior to reconnect with her before
taking her vows. Discovering that her aunt is not only a former hard-line
Communist state prosecutor notorious for sentencing prisoners to death, but she
is also a Jew. Anna’s real name is Ida and she too is a Jew. This revelation sets
Ida/Anna on a journey to uncover her roots and confront the truth about her
family. Together, the two women embark on a voyage of discovery of each other
and their past as they search for the unknown graves of their family.
In many respects Ida is a coming
of age story of a young woman left with nothing but her faith at a time where
no God could be found. As she silently and reluctantly searches for answers to
questions even she didn’t know she had, a growth and revelation in her character
is found and through Wanda she finds temporary freedom (to some
extent), but is freedom enough when there is very little reason left to exist?
Ultimately, Ida is a story of grief, a story of dysfunction, a story of
redemption at a time in human history when very little redemption was to be
found. The juxtaposition of these two women show the obverse and life lasting effects
had on so many of those of all ages who survived persecution from the Nazi’s. One
far too young to know or remember the atrocities of her past now living her
days imprisoned by a convent as if it were a concentration camp. The other too old
and too damaged to forget. Ida is bleak, compassionate and on times a brilliant
homage to a time in history that cinema often forgets, reminding those
fortunate enough to see it what it really means to be human.