Poland, 1962. Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska), a novitiate in a convent, is told by her mother superior that she must meet her only living relative before she takes her vows. So the pretty but shy soon to be nun ventures from her convent with a broken, beaten up suitcase held together by a belt. When she arrives at her Aunt Wanda's apartment, she's greeted by a woman in her forties smoking a cigarette and wearing a bathrobe, her hair disheveled, while a man gets dressed in the background. Thus the film highlights the contrast between the sheltered Anna and her cynical, hard drinking, sexually promiscuous aunt. And right after meeting for the first time, Wanda tells Anna bluntly that she is Jewish by birth. Anna, it turns out, was born Ida Lebenstein, but having grown up in an orphanage, has no memory of her family and no idea that she is Jewish. Wanda doesn't know exactly what became of Anna's/Ida's family but assumes that they were murdered by their farming neighbors.
Eventually we will also learn more about Wanda's past. In the 1950s she was a famous prosecutor, known as Red Wanda for having sent "enemies of the people" to the firing squads. But in the present, De-Stalinization has hit Poland, she is minor magistrate, politically marginalized. Anna and Wanda decide to take a road trip to find out what happened to Ida's parents. Along the way they pick up a handsome hitchhiking musician (Dawid Ogrodnik). Eventually, aunt and niece will learn the terrible fate of their family.
The movie is enticing for most of the times, but the end (without revealing a lot of it) is quite unsatisfying. What the audience wants to know is whether, after the terrible revelations, Ida will leave or not her religious life. The director (SPOILERS AHEAD) takes the easiest choice: basically he gives us two endings with the two possibilities. As Wanda, Agata Kulesza dominates the screen, while director Pawel Pawlikowski deliberately keeps Anna/Ida under wraps as an enigma. Pawlikowski has some questionable artsy tendencies as a director, like using takes that are longer than needed or having the camera close up for several seconds on a character as he or she does nothing. And there are several unexplained bits in the movie, like why aunt Wanda didn't adopt Ida when she was a child, a time when Wanda was a very successful official. The stark black-and-white photography is a plus.
Eventually we will also learn more about Wanda's past. In the 1950s she was a famous prosecutor, known as Red Wanda for having sent "enemies of the people" to the firing squads. But in the present, De-Stalinization has hit Poland, she is minor magistrate, politically marginalized. Anna and Wanda decide to take a road trip to find out what happened to Ida's parents. Along the way they pick up a handsome hitchhiking musician (Dawid Ogrodnik). Eventually, aunt and niece will learn the terrible fate of their family.
The movie is enticing for most of the times, but the end (without revealing a lot of it) is quite unsatisfying. What the audience wants to know is whether, after the terrible revelations, Ida will leave or not her religious life. The director (SPOILERS AHEAD) takes the easiest choice: basically he gives us two endings with the two possibilities. As Wanda, Agata Kulesza dominates the screen, while director Pawel Pawlikowski deliberately keeps Anna/Ida under wraps as an enigma. Pawlikowski has some questionable artsy tendencies as a director, like using takes that are longer than needed or having the camera close up for several seconds on a character as he or she does nothing. And there are several unexplained bits in the movie, like why aunt Wanda didn't adopt Ida when she was a child, a time when Wanda was a very successful official. The stark black-and-white photography is a plus.