‘But then what?’

This chapter talks about Paweł Pawlikowski's Ida as an ultimate film that speaks to any community that has been kept from fulfilling its full human potential in the last century. It emphasizes Ida's acknowledgement of Nazism, Stalinism, the Cold War, and political oppression throughout the world that have forced people into situations that they would have otherwise avoided. It also discusses how Ida is a film about meditation on the limitations that war, powerful ideologues, and forced emigration place on their survivors. This chapter mentions critic Tadeusz Sobolewski of Gazeta Wyborza, who wrote that Ida's dilemma lies in bearing the weight of evil that she has hidden herself. It examines Ida's silent refusal, spiritual transcendence, and way of coping with her personal tragedy and loss, which is considered a common fate among immigrants and orphans.

Introduction

This chapter introduces Paweł Pawlikowski's 2013 film titled Ida, which has been hailed by audiences around the world as the Polish-born director's masterpiece. It mentions film critics that laud Ida's mesmerising black-and-white cinematography and excellent acting and cultural critics that praise its courageous storyline. It also explains Ida as a film about meditation that focuses on a teenage novice nun and her world-weary aunt. This chapter reveals Ida's obscure references and ambiguous influences, as well as its essence as a quest for silence in the aftermath of tragedy. It analyses how Ida offers muted reflections on the major forces that have traumatised and shaped the contemporary Western world.

Two Women

This chapter cites the elements of several film genres contained in Paweł Pawlikowski's Ida, such as the genre of historical film or road film that frames a coming-of-age story. It explains how the traditional road film focus on the relationships within the car or other mode of transportation rather than on the story unfolding outside. It also talks about interior conflicts that take precedence over exterior ones, which are often just a means of getting the characters on the road, while external conflicts lead to the transformation of the characters rather than the other way around. The chapter reviews the traditional three-act structure of screenplays that consists of a setup, a confrontation, and a resolution. It emphasizes how Ida diverges from the three-act structure in the final scene, in which Ida's maturation and Wanda's surrender take the place of a resolution.

The Aftermath

This chapter mentions Paweł Pawlikowski's acceptance speech after Ida won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, which was the first time that a film from Poland had won the award. It analyses Pawlikowski's description of Ida as a film in black-and-white that stresses the need for contemplation and silence from the world. It also recounts Ida's world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado on August 30, 2013 and its rise to recognition by 2014. The chapter details how Ida received positive reviews in Western Europe and North America from the time of its premiere. It looks at Kenneth Turan's review of Ida in The Los Angeles Times, which described Ida as a film of exceptional artistry whose emotions are as potent and persuasive as its images are indelibly beautiful.

Neighbors

This chapter dissects the history surrounding the controversy over Paweł Pawlikowski's Ida in the Polish and international press. It mentions the small town where Wanda and Ida search for the remains of their relatives that bears a striking resemblance to a town in Poland named Jedwabne, which is best known for a pogrom that took place during the Nazi occupation of World War II. It also talks about the controversial book, Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabe, Poland, written by Jan Tomasz Gross and published in May 2000, which describes in detail how local residents began an anti-Jewish pogrom in Jedwabne. The chapter points out the massacre recounted in Neighbors that had been either attributed to the Nazi occupiers or shrouded in secrecy. It covers Gross's work that details how the Polish inhabitants of Jedwabne may have voluntarily massacred their Jewish neighbours.