Ida

Writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida is a touching personal story of spiritual identity. Opening in Poland, circa 1962, the story introduces Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska), an 18-year-old novitiate preparing to take vows at the convent where she's lived since being orphaned as a child. Before she makes her sanctified commitment to the Church, however, Mother Superior insists that Anna travel to Lodz to visit her only known relative, Wanda Grusz (Agata Kulesza)—her late mother's sister—whom she has never met. Known as “Red Wanda,” this former prosecutor for the Communist government reveals a family secret: Anna was born Ida Lebenstein, and she's Jewish. Wanda says that she suspects Anna's parents were betrayed by Polish peasants while hiding from the Nazis during WWII—a revelation that propels a road trip into the bleak countryside to try to find the isolated farmhouse where Ida was born and to search the nearby forest for graves. During this journey of self-discovery, the two women—who could not be more different—will bond. Devoutly Catholic Anna is an idealistic innocent, while earthy, promiscuous, alcoholic Wanda cynically enjoys attacking her naiveté, bluntly asking: “What if you discover there is no God?” An engaging and intellectually affecting tale, this is recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a Q&A with director Pawel Pawlikowski (22 min.), a behind-the-scenes featurette (12 min.), an interview with Pawlikowski (7 min.), trailers, and a booklet featuring writings from film scholar Ewa Mazierska and The Vulgar Cinema editor Sara Freeman. Bottom line: a fine extras package for an engaging foreign film.] (S. Granger)