Ida (2013)

Academy Awards, USA 2015

Won Oscar	Best Foreign Language Film of the Year Pawel Pawlikowski Poland
Nominated Oscar	Best Achievement in Cinematography Lukasz Zal Ryszard Lenczewski

Music Box Films
Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Netflix)

A Polish nun leaves her convent in search of her past. With the help of an aunt, they travel across the country to a remote village where they begin to ask questions about her parents. At first reluctant to tell what they know, her aunt's position as a judge in the communist government persuades them otherwise. It turns out her parents were Jews hidden from the Nazis, but that is only the beginning of the story. The nun also undergoes a personal crisis, emulating her older aunt's bad habits of smoking, drinking and eventually having sex with a musician they meet on the road. It's all presented in harsh, beautiful, high contrast black and white, reflecting the cold interiors of its angst ridden characters. The plot becomes a bit too predictable by the end and it is hard to care about these unhappy characters who seem to bring much of it on themselves.