Anna, a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland, is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a dark family secret dating back to the years of the Nazi occupation.
Pawlikowski has a photographer’s eye for composition, and every crisp, monochrome frame could be a postcard from Poland’s tragic, turbulent past.
Shot in black and white, this excavation of Europe’s past, infused with shades of grey, is simple, swift and surprising.
A novice nun journeys through her family’s secret past in Paweł Pawlikowski’s outstanding black-and-white drama.
Powerfully lingers in the mind thanks to its treatment of trauma, reconciliation and iron will.
It’s an intriguing story, crisply told, but the austere, remote style makes it hard to engage emotionally.
Ida has the lightness, grace, humour and visual inventiveness of the New Wave movies of the Sixties (The Loves of a Blonde, Closely Observed Trains etc.) to which it pays such obvious homage.
For all its sombre subject matter, there is warmth here too; personal, musical, spiritual.
Pawel Pawlikowski
General release. Check local listings for show times.