Ida

Starring Agata Kulesza,
Agata Trzebuchowska and Dawid Ogrodnik
Written by Pawel Pawilokowski and Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Directed by Pawel Pawilokowski
Poland/Denmark/France/UK 2014
82 mins

The Acton Film Club started in 2009 and we are screening a film that may have gone under your radar from every year since we began - this time 2014.

Perhaps the most talented and visually accomplished filmmaker working in Britain today is Pawel Pawilokovski. Born in Poland but raised and educated here Pawlikowski started out making documentaries but switched to fiction in 2001 with 'Last Resort'. He won a BAFTA Best Newcomer award for that film and has gone on to win numerous prizes including a BAFTA and an Oscar for 'Ida' in 2015. His latest - 'Cold War' - was one of the highlights of last year - a raw semi-biographical love story that charted the history of the post-war years in Europe.
Pawilokowski's films are poetic, beautiful and frequently very moving. He often shoots in black and white -  framing the shots with a painter's eye for composition.
Set in Poland in 1962 'Ida' tells the story of a young woman on the verge of taking her vows as a nun, who when she visits her aunt Wanda, makes an unexpected discovery about her heritage.
The two take off on a road trip during which Wanda encourages her niece to experience worldly pleasures before she commits to the religious life. Their subsequent experiences have a profound effect on both of them...
Agata Kulesza is luminous as Ida while Agata Trzebuchowska gives a powerful performance as Wanda - a woman scarred by the post war communist world and her part in it.
'Ida' is a sublime movie, intense, insightful and at times transcendent.

Don't miss it.