Life /
Thoughts on "Ida" (Polish movie) [30]
"Ida" is a great film in many ways. In Poland, extremists on either side have tried to ideologise it. The right claims it is anti-Polish because it deals with the Holocaust without any Germans -- a Polish peasant Feliks Skiba killed Ida's parents to steal their property. But that did occur -- the szmalcowniki were notorious for reporting Jews to the Gestapo for financial gain. Jews and lefties claim it is anti-Semitic. Helena Datner, a leading Jewish leader, feels it entrenches stereotypes of Jews in the post-war Stalinist terror apparatus. The fact is tha Jews were highly overrepresented therein.
According to director Pawlikowski, the film is not about that. It is a study of human paradoxes about two women coming to terms with their tragic past.
The former Stalinsit prosecutor Wanda Gruz, who had sent many Polish patriots to their death for opposing their country's sovietisation, tries to drown out guilt feelings via hedonist pursuits -- a posh flat, Wartburg saloon, fancy duds, partying, vodka, cigarettes and random hook-ups, but ultimatley fails and commits suicide.
Ida temporarily sheds her novice's habit to sample such forbidden fruits as alcohol, cigarettes and sex, but ultimatley rejects such temporal things, opts for eternity and returns to her convent to tkae her vos of poverty, chastity and obedience.net. If anything, this film is deeply pro-Catholic.
Since I first visited Poland in the mid-1960s, I can commend Pawlikowski and his set designers for their authentic re-creation of those '60s surroundings -- street scenes, vehicles, dress and a typical café dance featuring such hits as "Rudy rydz".
.
