"Ida" in Estonia, UK and Ireland

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.

Estonia

Ida was released theatrically in Estonia on September 26. Distribution is handled by Tartu Elektriteater.

UK and Ireland

Ida was released theatrically in United Kingdom and Ireland on September 26. Distribution is handled by Artificial Eye and Curzon Film World.

Ida

A novice nun discovers that she is Jewish; she had been christened as a child to be saved from the Holocaust. Together with her only surviving relative, a communist removed from power, she travels to her hometown on a journey in search of identity, love, and forgiveness. Although the story is set in 1961, the film itself is not meant to be accusatory; Pawlikowski’s focus was not history, but rather the human condition.

The Latest Film by Paweł Pawlikowski

Ida is the latest film by director Paweł Pawlikowski and his first feature to be produced entirely in Poland. The script was awarded a MEDIA European Talent Prize. The film was lensed by Łukasz Żal and Ryszard Lenczewski and features performances by Agata Kulesza and first-time actress Agata Trzebuchowska, with supporting roles by Dawid Ogrodnik, Joanna Kulig, Jerzy Trela, and Adam Szyszkowski.

A Polish-Danish Co-Production Supported by the Polish Film Institute

Ida was made as a co-production between Poland and Denmark, produced by Opus Film and Phoenix Film in co-operation with Portobello Pictures, Phoenix Film Polska, and Canal+ Polska. The film was co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, Eurimages, the Danish Film Institute, and the Łódź Film Fund.

Poland’s Candidate for Academy Award®

Ida, a film by Paweł Pawlikowski,is Poland’s candidate for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award®. Further details are available here. 

Awards in Poland and Abroad

To date, Ida has received recognition at film festivals in Poland and abroad. The film received the FIPRESCI Prize in the Special Presentations section of the 38th Toronto International Film Festival and four awards at the 38th Gdynia Film Festival: the Golden Lions Award for Best Film and the awards for Best Photography, Best Actress (Agata Kulesza) and Best Production Design (Katarzyna Sobańska and Marcel Sławiński). Ida also won top laurels at the 29th Warsaw Film Festival and the 57th London Film Festival. The film’s cinematographers Łukasz Żal and Ryszard Lenczewski also won the Golden Frog Award for Best Cinematography at the 21st Camerimage International Festival of the Art of Cinematography and received the ASC Spotlight Award. 

Box Office Success

Paweł Pawlikowski’s Ida had its world premiere at the 40th Telluride Film Festival, which took place in late August and early September 2013. On October 25, 2013, the film was released theatrically in Poland. The film’s subsequent international distribution has proven to be one of the most spectacular successes in the history of Polish cinema. In France, Pawlikowski’s film reached an audience of almost 500,000, with over 100,000 admissions in Italy and nearly as much in Spain and the Netherlands. The film’s US box office is currently at 3.7 million USD, with about 460,000 admissions to the film’s US theatrical screenings. It is a fact worth mentioning that on the day of release, the film screened at a mere three cinemas. As its popularity grew, so did the scale of distribution, reaching a total of 137 screens at its peak.

Ida in Cinemas Around the World

Ida has also been released theatrically in Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Japan, Canada, Germany, Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Taiwan. In total, the film has been sold to 56 countries to date, and there is continuing interest in further territories. On September 26, Ida will be released theatrically in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and in Denmark and Sweden in October. To date, Ida has also screened at almost 50 film festivals, winning over 30 awards. More about the international theatrical release od Ida at: www.pisf.pl/en.

Excellent Reviews

Ida enjoyed very favourable reviews by Polish and international film critics.

“This quiet film touches on the grand questions that affect us all: about evil, faith, our identity, and our country. Ida is one of the most mature films in recent years,” writes Tadeusz Sobolewski for Gazeta Wyborcza.

Bruno Icher of “Libération” describes Ida as “a beautiful film, probably the only example of such raw aesthetics.” “How long has it been since we last saw such a beautiful Polish film? Undoubtedly not since the works of Kieślowski,” writes François-Guillaume Lorrain for Le Point.

In a review for Il corriere della sera, Paolo Merenghetti writes: “With a radical leap from the highly mobile camera and deliberately gritty style of his earlier films, Pawlikowski (along with cameraman Łukasz Żal and cinematographer Ryszard Lenczewski) places his two protagonists inside images of classic beauty, perfectly balanced in the unusual ‘square’ format that was used in the 1940s (1:1.33) – elegant but also cold and icy in complex black and white that also uses all possible shades of grey.”

In his review for the New Yorker, David Debny writes: “[…] the stillness of the great new Polish film Ida comes as something of a shock. I can’t recall a movie that makes such expressive use of silence and portraiture.” David Debny dubs Ida “a compact masterpiece.” He also had words of praise about the cinematography: “the director and his fledgling cinematographer, Łukasz Żal, shot the movie in hard-focus black and white; they have produced images so distinct and powerful that they sharpen our senses.

According to A.O. Scott who reviewed Ida for the New York Times, “Ida has some of the structure and feeling of an ancient folk tale. […] [w]ithin its relatively brief duration and its narrow black-and-white frames, the movie somehow contains a cosmos of guilt, violence and pain. […] Ida is as compact and precise as a novella, a sequence of short, emphatic scenes that reveal the essence of the characters without simplifying them.” As Scott states, Ida leaves an impression on audiences also “thanks to Łukasz Żal and Ryszard Lenczewski’s beautifully misty, piercingly sharp monochrome cinematography.”

More French reviews are available at: www.pisf.pl/en.

More American reviews are available at: www.pisf.pl/en. 

More Italian reviews are available at: www.pisf.pl/en. 

The official website: www.ida-movie.com. 

Paulina Bez