Ida **½ (PG-13) In this black & white subtitled Polish drama, we meet Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska), a pretty young nun about to take her vows after being raised in the convent’s orphanage in the 1960s. The mother superior suggests she visit an aunt she’d never known before finalizing the commitment, in sort of a variation on the Amish custom of rumspringa - soujourns into the outside world before deciding whether to join the church as adult members. The aunt (Agata Kulesza) she discovers is a depressed, dissipated former prosecutor who zealously punished those who didn’t buy the post-war party line.
But the surprise of learning she had that family, is dwarfed by the news that she’s actually Jewish, named Ida, and her parents were killed during WW II after arranging for their infant daughter to be raised by the nuns. The two embark on a quest to find the parents’ graves. The rest is a quiet, pensive look at the times and the range of emotional scars felt and ingrained in all who were affected by the systematic purge of her people. One Gentile neighbor his the parents for part of the time. The aunt starts facing long-buried feelings about her role in both the Nazi and Communist eras. Ida experiences the secular world for the first time, including a solid exposure to the era’s jazz music.
Most of what happens is subtle and internal, making it a richer experience for those who prefer the intense engagement of interpreting facial expressions and reading the silences between the lines without much physical action advancing the story or our understanding of the characters. The understated performances are deep and substantive (especially in this demanding feature debut for Trzebuchowska), if one invests the energy to watch more closely than summer blockbusters and other domestic fare usually require. (6/13/14)