Great reviews of "Ida"

Ida, Photo courtesy of Solopan 

Ida, a film directed by Paweł Pawlikowski and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, was released theatrically in Estonia, United Kingdom and Ireland on September 26, 2014. Poland’s candidate for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award® has been enthusiastically received very well by British film critics.

The Times

Wendy Ide from The Times writes in her review that “Ida, a stunning drama by the Polish-born, British-based director Pawel Pawlikowski is a film to be cherished. There is not a frame in this austere spiritual journey that isn’t a thing of heartfelt beauty.”

Sight and Sound

Catherine Wheatley in her review of the film in Sight and Sound magazine praises the visual site of Ida “Cinematographers Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski’s detailed, painterly style of shooting is balanced by their use of natural light, which casts their sets in shadows. (…) Impassive grey skies and bulky cement blocks dominate the screen, consigning the characters to its lower corners. (…) The bare, brutal mise en scène is all right angles and parallel lines: window frames, doorways, railings, even the trees are unusually upright, as if the landscape itself is trying desperately to impose order on chaos.”

According to Wheatley “Newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska – whose glittering, unreadable eyes are almost black – is perfect in the role.” She also likes very much the role of Agata Kulesza “her performance as Wanda is simply breathtaking.” – writes Catherine Wheatley.

The Guardian

Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian writes: “Ida has something of the classic Polish film school, along with touches of Béla Tarr and Aki Kaurismäki. The cinematography shows a fondness for alienated compositions, in which faces are low down in the frame with an oppressive blankness overhead – although the images in the convent often resemble something by Vermeer.”

According to Peter Bradshaw “Agata Trzebuchowska is tremendously mysterious as a 17-year-old novitiate. He also likes “Wanda Gruz, tremendously played by Agata Kulesza.”

“Ida is a compelling film […] . The performances are superb and the sense of location and period miraculous. It could be Pawlikowski’s masterpiece – but I sense this director, who is just 57, still has more to say.” – we read in the review at The Guardian.

London Evening Standard

“Ida is far from the severe work it seems at the outset: it’s a full, generously humane film, carried by women.” – writes Guy Lodge at London Evening Standard.

The Telegraph

Tim Robey from The Telegraph writes that Ida is “a masterwork. There’s something eerily perfect about it, quite complete.” ” What shots these are. The film immediately quotes Vermeer. […] look at Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida, and have your eyes opened to what rich glories a monochrome palette can achieve.” – we read in Ida’s review in The Telegraph.

Female First

“Ida is one of those movies where everything comes together; a terrific script is brought to life by wonderful actors, while they are back up by some beautiful and sharp direction. Ida is a beautiful movie, despite that fact that it explores the darkness of the Holocaust, and Pawlikowski’s work really does have to be applauded.” – writes Helen Ernshaw at Female First.

Ernshaw prasises a lot the performances of the Polish actresses “Trzebuchowska delivers a terrific central performance as Anna/Ida a young woman whose world is turned upside down by the revelations of her past. […] Kulesza is equally fantastic in the role of Wanda.

The official website of Ida is available at: www.ida-movie.com.

Ida is in Consideration for EFA People’s Choice Award. Further details. 

Paulina Bez