Ida (2013) follows Anna, a young postulate from Poland in 1962 who grew up in a convent orphanage and knows little about the outside world. Mother Superior tells her she has an aunt, her mother's sister, and that she should pay her a visit before taking her final vows. Wanda, her aunt, reveals that she is Jewish and expresses amazement that the nuns were unaware of her heritage. They go out together to find out what happened to Anna's parents during the war and where they might be buried, a journey that has a deep impact on both of them.
The sluggish movement of the camera in Ida serves the direct objective of evoking an apathetic presence and expressing the past's overwhelming hold. In this film, the camera rarely moves, resulting in extended, static shots. After that, the images are gently stitched together to resemble still paintings or photographs. As a result, the characters are frozen in time, mirroring the paralyzing effect Ida and Wanda's history has on their current lives. Wanda is subsequently unable to cope with the realities of her family history and chooses to end her own life, allowing her past to freeze herself in her present, as evidenced by the shots of the film.
The lack of sound was the first thing that struck me about the film, it was a movie with a lot of silence. There were few sound effects or elements of a soundtrack to be found. While there was music in the picture, it was only used on a few occasions. The only noises were soft-spoken discourse and the occasional sounds of a piano or a Polish jazz ensemble. Paweł Pawlikowski, the film's director and one of its writers, was clearly not scared of using lengthy, calm shots. Pawlikowski, like sound, used cinematography to establish a false distinction between the women and the country as a whole. The film is fully filmed in black and white, with natural light used to brighten situations and grab the viewer's attention. This decision conjures up images of white being associated with righteousness and justness, while black being associated with badness and wrongdoing. Ida, on the other hand, adds a layer of nuance to this overused stereotype. The film portrays Ida as nice and Wanda as wicked, emphasizing their disparities greatly. Natural light shines on Ida in numerous photos, underlining her relationship with virtue.
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