---
product_id: 81050933
title: "Ida [DVD]"
price: "€ 17.50"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 10
url: https://www.desertcart.ie/products/81050933-ida-dvd
store_origin: IE
region: Ireland
---

# Ida [DVD]

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- **What is this?** Ida [DVD]
- **How much does it cost?** € 17.50 with free shipping
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## Description

NOTICE: The disk has English subtitles. Poland 1962 Anna is a novice, an orphan brought up by nuns in the convent. She has to see Wanda, the only living relative, before she takes her vows. Wanda tells Anna that Anna is Jewish. ... See full summary ĹĽ

Review: Orphan girl - No Germans appear in the film. They aren’t even talked about, as if their existence had no meaning, as if they were too worthless to think about and mention. But what they did during the war in Poland lingers, the people marked by it. Memories run deep and some wounds will not heal. Anna is a young woman in a convent in Lodz. She’s 19 or 20 and the year is 1961, so perhaps she was born in about 1941. She is chaste and devout, dedicated to God, hers a life of surrender and abstinence. She finds meaning and purpose in the Saviour. From the outside devotion can look like a life wasted. But it’s something lived on the inside where feelings and the spirit reside. Anna is at peace with her life. Or nearly so. She is to take her vows some time in the forthcoming weeks. It’s a big step because once taken they cannot be easily rescinded. The holy vows are a symbolic merging of one’s spirit with God’s. Anna is summonsed by the Mother Superior. Family should be notified before the sacred vows are taken. But Anna has no family. She was brought to the convent as an orphan when she was just a small child, perhaps only a year old. However, the Mother Superior says Anna has an aunt who is still living. The convent has made attempts to contact her, but in vain, their letters unanswered. However, a letter from the aunt has recently arrived. In it the aunt says she does not want to meet Anna. Anna has the address of her aunt. She must go to her before taking her vows. She rides in a tram through the city, her face seen through glass. Reflections on it move across her face: clouds, tree branches, the tops of buildings. She gazes through the window passively, stoically, tranquilly. The world around her is busy but she is quiet within herself, self-contained. She finds the flat of her Aunt Wanda, this person she has never met, the sister of her deceased mother. Wanda has her own life and is not pleased to see her niece. Anna reminds her of another time, a different life now gone. Just as well, as nothing can bring it back. It ended hopelessly, bitterly. Since then life has been a wilful act of forgetting the past. Wanda tells Anna quite matter-of-factly that she’s not Anna but Ida — Ida Lebenstein, a Jew, not the good Catholic Anna thinks she is. But Wanda doesn’t want to discuss details of it. Anna’s parents were murdered. The young son of Wanda as well. They died together. Anna was spared, given to a priest who passed her along to the sisters at the convent orphanage. Anna goes away after this cold reception. She will go to the bus station and take a bus to the village where she and her parents once lived. But before she departs the station Aunt Wanda appears. Out of remorse or pity Wanda has had a change of heart. She and Anna travel in Wanda’s old car to the village. Their detective work into the past begins there. Along the way they pick up a hitchhiker, a young musician named Lis. He is on his way to a nearby town to meet his band who will play for a dance in a local hotel. He plays the alto sax. Four others in the band are these: a guitarist, pianist, drummer and female singer. Lis and his music will have a profound effect on Anna she didn’t see coming. Lis is a lover of Coltrane and jazz. Jazz is the siren song of sin, music made through a sensual and sexual pact with the Devil. Its freedom invites chaos and anarchy; its temptations doom those who embrace it. This is the conservative view. But there’s another view, open and free form, jazz seen as redemption, an invitation to live, and to do it expressively, passionately. Jazz says it’s O.K. to sin, to give way to carnal desires. In fact, to not do it is to truly sin, abstinence a form of death in life. Unlike most humans, the jazzman is alive, deeply rooted in the moment. Like God, he is a creator, his music bringing life into the world. A conceit, surely, but one that feels true in the moment of rapture when the music becomes transcendent. Anna will be mesmerised by it and Lis. Aunt Wanda goes to the dance. It’s in a downstairs restaurant at the hotel where she and Anna are staying. She drinks, smokes, flirts, dances, kisses a stranger at the bar. She is what’s known as a loose woman. She was once respectable, whatever that means. She was a judge and public prosecutor who sent men to their deaths after the war. But now she looks back cynically at that time. Now she seeks oblivion in causal sex and stimulants, a haze of incoherence glossing over the ugliness of the world. The dichotomy is thus made explicit: Anna saint, Wanda sinner. Yet complexity of character forms the beauty of the film (or one of its beauties), not simplicity. On this journey of discovery both Anna and Wanda will change. The opening scenes of the film show Anna at the convent painting the face of Christ with a small brush. The Saviour is a plaster statue made by the nuns and he will be carried by them into the snowy courtyard of the convent and placed on a pedestal, not a cross. Like the Redeemer in Rio, he will stand tall and bless the world. Where does her artistic talent come from? It comes from her mother. Anna learns this from Wanda. Her mother once made a beautiful stained glass window for the cowshed on their farm. It served no reasonable purpose. The cows could not appreciate its beauty. But her sister, Anna’s mother, said it would make them happy whether they thought about it or not. Beauty is like that somehow. It stirs something inside that makes us notice the happy way the world can look. We needn’t think anything. Just feel. Were the cows sentient beings too? Did they feel something special? Anna’s mother thought they did. Christ’s face, beauty, faith, redemption. Somehow these are connected for Anna. Add to it jazz and sensuality. If she is to take her vows, they will come only after she explores more of herself and the nature of the world. Music for her will open that door. The film was shot in monochrome, not colour. Normally the world is like a rainbow because the colours in it blend together. Black-and-white is different, the edges sharp, the divide between each clean. It’s why black-and-white looks so stark. Everything is clear, stands out. It is chaste and austere too, the world drained of colour. No coincidence as well, perhaps, that nuns dress in black and white, life reduced to a raw simplicity where choices are easier to see and make. There is much on the journey of Anna and Wanda that can be described. But it’s better here to say less. The film is what matters, not a review of it. However, I will say it’s extraordinary. It has the look and feel of a classic. Think Bergman, Bresson, Dreyer. The film has won several awards, including an Academy Award, and was voted no. 55 on a list of the best films of the 21st century by 177 film critics around the world. At only 80 minutes it may feel too short, but through expert editing the film is dense with images, impressions, emotions. A mature work of art from a director (Pawel Pawlikowski) at the peak of his powers. Five stars is the desertcart limit, but in truth it deserves more.
Review: Best Polish film for years - Probably the best new release of 2014, and the best Polish film I've seen for many years. Shot in the style of films made when it is set (the early 1960s), stunning monochrome and Academy ratio. It packs so much into 80 minutes: the aftermath of the holocaust, Polish-Jewish relations, Catholicism versus Communism, the personality clash between two very different women, one the aunt of the other, the nature of a religious vow. The acting is perfect, the cinematography is to die for, and it deservedly won Best Film award at the 2013 London festival (which is where I first saw it). Too much of the plot can't be revealed without giving away a "spoiler". The ending may be thought by some to be slightly ambiguous, but it is clear enough to me. I bought this Polish edition for a friend, but it has optional English subtitles. Highly recommended.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN  | 8379891716 |
| Actors  | Adam Szyszkowski, Agata Kulesza, Agata Trzebuchowska, Dawid Ogrodnik, Joanna Kulig |
| Aspect Ratio  | 4:3 - 1.33:1 |
| Country of origin  | Poland |
| Customer reviews | 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (708) |
| Director  | Pawel Pawlikowski |
| Is discontinued by manufacturer  | No |
| Language  | Polish (Dolby Digital 5.1), Polish (Dolby Digital 5.1), Unqualified (Dolby Digital 5.1) |
| Media Format  | DVD-Video, Import, PAL |
| Number of discs  | 1 |
| Product Dimensions  | 20 x 15 x 1 cm; 83.16 g |
| Run time  | 80 minutes |
| Studio  | Solopan |
| Subtitles:  | English |

## Images

![Ida [DVD] - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41og+NiVdxL.jpg)
![Ida [DVD] - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51FMtNlXRHL.jpg)
![Ida [DVD] - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Fa49-DnzL.jpg)
![Ida [DVD] - Image 4](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81kJjSBakoL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Orphan girl
*by J***T on 23 March 2018*

No Germans appear in the film. They aren’t even talked about, as if their existence had no meaning, as if they were too worthless to think about and mention. But what they did during the war in Poland lingers, the people marked by it. Memories run deep and some wounds will not heal. Anna is a young woman in a convent in Lodz. She’s 19 or 20 and the year is 1961, so perhaps she was born in about 1941. She is chaste and devout, dedicated to God, hers a life of surrender and abstinence. She finds meaning and purpose in the Saviour. From the outside devotion can look like a life wasted. But it’s something lived on the inside where feelings and the spirit reside. Anna is at peace with her life. Or nearly so. She is to take her vows some time in the forthcoming weeks. It’s a big step because once taken they cannot be easily rescinded. The holy vows are a symbolic merging of one’s spirit with God’s. Anna is summonsed by the Mother Superior. Family should be notified before the sacred vows are taken. But Anna has no family. She was brought to the convent as an orphan when she was just a small child, perhaps only a year old. However, the Mother Superior says Anna has an aunt who is still living. The convent has made attempts to contact her, but in vain, their letters unanswered. However, a letter from the aunt has recently arrived. In it the aunt says she does not want to meet Anna. Anna has the address of her aunt. She must go to her before taking her vows. She rides in a tram through the city, her face seen through glass. Reflections on it move across her face: clouds, tree branches, the tops of buildings. She gazes through the window passively, stoically, tranquilly. The world around her is busy but she is quiet within herself, self-contained. She finds the flat of her Aunt Wanda, this person she has never met, the sister of her deceased mother. Wanda has her own life and is not pleased to see her niece. Anna reminds her of another time, a different life now gone. Just as well, as nothing can bring it back. It ended hopelessly, bitterly. Since then life has been a wilful act of forgetting the past. Wanda tells Anna quite matter-of-factly that she’s not Anna but Ida — Ida Lebenstein, a Jew, not the good Catholic Anna thinks she is. But Wanda doesn’t want to discuss details of it. Anna’s parents were murdered. The young son of Wanda as well. They died together. Anna was spared, given to a priest who passed her along to the sisters at the convent orphanage. Anna goes away after this cold reception. She will go to the bus station and take a bus to the village where she and her parents once lived. But before she departs the station Aunt Wanda appears. Out of remorse or pity Wanda has had a change of heart. She and Anna travel in Wanda’s old car to the village. Their detective work into the past begins there. Along the way they pick up a hitchhiker, a young musician named Lis. He is on his way to a nearby town to meet his band who will play for a dance in a local hotel. He plays the alto sax. Four others in the band are these: a guitarist, pianist, drummer and female singer. Lis and his music will have a profound effect on Anna she didn’t see coming. Lis is a lover of Coltrane and jazz. Jazz is the siren song of sin, music made through a sensual and sexual pact with the Devil. Its freedom invites chaos and anarchy; its temptations doom those who embrace it. This is the conservative view. But there’s another view, open and free form, jazz seen as redemption, an invitation to live, and to do it expressively, passionately. Jazz says it’s O.K. to sin, to give way to carnal desires. In fact, to not do it is to truly sin, abstinence a form of death in life. Unlike most humans, the jazzman is alive, deeply rooted in the moment. Like God, he is a creator, his music bringing life into the world. A conceit, surely, but one that feels true in the moment of rapture when the music becomes transcendent. Anna will be mesmerised by it and Lis. Aunt Wanda goes to the dance. It’s in a downstairs restaurant at the hotel where she and Anna are staying. She drinks, smokes, flirts, dances, kisses a stranger at the bar. She is what’s known as a loose woman. She was once respectable, whatever that means. She was a judge and public prosecutor who sent men to their deaths after the war. But now she looks back cynically at that time. Now she seeks oblivion in causal sex and stimulants, a haze of incoherence glossing over the ugliness of the world. The dichotomy is thus made explicit: Anna saint, Wanda sinner. Yet complexity of character forms the beauty of the film (or one of its beauties), not simplicity. On this journey of discovery both Anna and Wanda will change. The opening scenes of the film show Anna at the convent painting the face of Christ with a small brush. The Saviour is a plaster statue made by the nuns and he will be carried by them into the snowy courtyard of the convent and placed on a pedestal, not a cross. Like the Redeemer in Rio, he will stand tall and bless the world. Where does her artistic talent come from? It comes from her mother. Anna learns this from Wanda. Her mother once made a beautiful stained glass window for the cowshed on their farm. It served no reasonable purpose. The cows could not appreciate its beauty. But her sister, Anna’s mother, said it would make them happy whether they thought about it or not. Beauty is like that somehow. It stirs something inside that makes us notice the happy way the world can look. We needn’t think anything. Just feel. Were the cows sentient beings too? Did they feel something special? Anna’s mother thought they did. Christ’s face, beauty, faith, redemption. Somehow these are connected for Anna. Add to it jazz and sensuality. If she is to take her vows, they will come only after she explores more of herself and the nature of the world. Music for her will open that door. The film was shot in monochrome, not colour. Normally the world is like a rainbow because the colours in it blend together. Black-and-white is different, the edges sharp, the divide between each clean. It’s why black-and-white looks so stark. Everything is clear, stands out. It is chaste and austere too, the world drained of colour. No coincidence as well, perhaps, that nuns dress in black and white, life reduced to a raw simplicity where choices are easier to see and make. There is much on the journey of Anna and Wanda that can be described. But it’s better here to say less. The film is what matters, not a review of it. However, I will say it’s extraordinary. It has the look and feel of a classic. Think Bergman, Bresson, Dreyer. The film has won several awards, including an Academy Award, and was voted no. 55 on a list of the best films of the 21st century by 177 film critics around the world. At only 80 minutes it may feel too short, but through expert editing the film is dense with images, impressions, emotions. A mature work of art from a director (Pawel Pawlikowski) at the peak of his powers. Five stars is the Amazon limit, but in truth it deserves more.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Best Polish film for years
*by A***N on 26 October 2014*

Probably the best new release of 2014, and the best Polish film I've seen for many years. Shot in the style of films made when it is set (the early 1960s), stunning monochrome and Academy ratio. It packs so much into 80 minutes: the aftermath of the holocaust, Polish-Jewish relations, Catholicism versus Communism, the personality clash between two very different women, one the aunt of the other, the nature of a religious vow. The acting is perfect, the cinematography is to die for, and it deservedly won Best Film award at the 2013 London festival (which is where I first saw it). Too much of the plot can't be revealed without giving away a "spoiler". The ending may be thought by some to be slightly ambiguous, but it is clear enough to me. I bought this Polish edition for a friend, but it has optional English subtitles. Highly recommended.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Different, slow-moving but compelling.
*by D***E on 17 January 2015*

An unusual, wistful little film starkly shot in monochrome in which two very different women discover what happened to their Jewish relatives in Second World War Poland. Excellent performances from the two ladies as the indecisive young nun and her brittle, alcoholic aunt though a slightly unconvincing downbeat ending. I will say no more so as not to spoil the film for those who have not seen it .

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*Last updated: 2026-03-17*