pawelol I had high hopes for this movie as this movie won an Oscar. However it doesn't deserve it. There were hundreds of movies that year which should have won it. It is shockingly boring, too short and too slow. Not to mention that the whole story is an insult to Polish efforts for saving jews from German occupied Poland. Poland was the only country during ww2 that didn't collaborate with either Germans of Russians. According to Wikipedia Estimates the number of Poles involved in rescue at up to 3 million, and credit Poles with saving up to around 450,000 Jews from certain death.The rescue efforts were aided by one of the largest anti-Nazi resistance movements in Europe, the Polish Underground State and its military arm, the Armia Krajowa. Supported by the Polish government-in-exile, these organizations operated special units dedicated to helping Jews; of those, the most notable was Żegota Council based in Warsaw with branches in Kraków, Wilno and Lwów.Polish citizens were hampered by the most extreme conditions in all of German-occupied Europe. Occupied Poland was the only territory where the Germans decreed that any kind of help for Jews was punishable by death for the helper and their entire family. Of the estimated 3 million non-Jewish Poles killed in World War II, up to 50,000 were executed by Nazi Germany solely as penalty for saving Jews.After the War most of this information was suppressed by the Soviet-installed satellite regime in an attempt to discredit Polish prewar society and its wartime government as reactionary.

soviet blobfish Ida is a film about a novice Nun named Anna who, approaching the end of her training is delivered a startling revelation concerning her identity and she must leave the Nunnery in an attempt to find answers.Ida as a film is almost perfect. The film is shot in a crisp black and white intended to be reminiscent of the Soviet era Poland that the film is set in. This decision is complemented by brilliant cinematography which prefers longer shots, and frames almost every one of them perfectly. It is only a small exaggeration for me to say that any shot randomly picked from the movie could work for its poster. Pawel Pawlikowski and cinematographers Łukasz Żal and Ryszard Lenczewski pull off wonders behind the camera and make even a shot of Anna walking down a country road breathtaking.The acting in Ida is also very strong although perhaps its weakest element in comparison to others. The performances are mostly emotional and heartfelt but at times Anna's character can come across a bit too passive and blank (even if she is in an alien environment.) The acting of Agata Kulesza as the Aunt is by far the best in the movie and she delivers a conflicted deep performance. There is no music in the film except for when there is music for the characters (with a small exception in the final scene). This silence works in the films favour creating a more immersive experience and adding significance to those scenes where music is heard. For example the Jazz band's pieces are emphasised by their breaking of the silence and are contrasted with the absence of music in the Monastery to illustrate the diverging lives Anna could lead.The film also poses deeper questions to the audience over the areas of guilt and moral responsibility and the slower pace that the editing provides gives the audience a greater time alongside the characters to consider this.Ultimately this film delivers an incredibly impactful story in a beautiful fashion. As long as you don't mind films with subtitles or a slightly slower paced movie, I cannot recommend it more.

Lee Eisenberg Poland, like the rest of Europe, has made movies focusing on its experience under Nazi occupation. Paweł Pawlikowski's "Ida" looks at a young woman about to take her vows in 1962 who discovers that she was born a Jew. She proceeds to try and find out the whole story.The movie drew criticism from various factions in Poland. One allegation is that it depicts the Poles as willing collaborators with the Nazis. Another is that it portrays Jews as willing collaborators with the Soviet-backed regime. I'd say that a better description is that it shows how there were different kinds of people in both eras. Just as there were Poles who aided the Nazis, there were Poles who helped the Jews. Just as there were people who collaborated with Moscow's puppets, there were people who resisted it.The point is, this is a very well made movie. The black-and-white cinematography emphasizes the existence that people lived in 1960s Poland, a combination of the Nazis' atrocities from twenty years earlier (including the leveling of Warsaw) and the Soviet-backed regime's atrocities. It was appropriate that this was Poland's first winner of Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, along with a number of other awards. I highly recommend the movie, and I hope to see more movies from this director.

roddekker In a nutshell, I'd say that "Ida" is what one would call an "art" film. Nothing more. Nothing less.And, in being an "art" film - Because its story was delivered in such a bleak, dry, dull-edged and slow-paced fashion, I, personally, consider it to be a very poor example of the genre that it represents. This is the sort of film that could only appeal to a very small and select audience."Ida" is one of those films where (due to its completely barren storytelling), one finds their mind wandering to other matters as the story progresses at a literal snail's pace.Due to all of the unwarranted praise that "Ida" has garnered for itself - You can surely bet that had this stark, dead-end film been a Hollywood production no one would be giving it even the slightest bit of attention.But, just because "Ida" is a foreign production (from Poland) critics, and the likes, are literally falling all over themselves with praise and admiration for such a depressingly miserable picture as this.