Ida (2013) review

Catholic nun-in-training Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) is instructed to go live with her aunt Wanda (Agata Kulesza) in order to discover her true heritage: she's actually the child of a Jewish couple who were executed in Poland ... and the aunt acts as a grueling investigator of the residents of the area (she is a former judge). As a statement about the role the non-Jewish Poles played in WWII it's rather superficial, and the whore/virgin dichotomy at play between the Anna and Wanda characters (Anna being 'pure,' Wanda being a promiscuous alcoholic urging Anna to lose her virginity and embrace 'earthly pleasures') comes across as rather blasé, considering the sterility of Pawlikowski's black and white presentation. Coincidentally, it only attains a modicum of emotional resonance in the final half hour when Wanda succumbs to her demons and Anna does, in fact, have a fling with a musician ... only to put her habit on the following day and return to the life she found comfortable and safe: been there, going back to that.