What Is Ida's Irrelevance To The World

Ida, a Polish film, takes the audience on a journey of the main character’s inner conflict. The film opens with a girl, Ida, who has lived in a convent all her life. Everything changes, however, when Ida is asked to visit her last living relative, her aunt. Upon meeting her Aunt, Ida receives a shocking truth. After walking away from the covenant, Ida struggles to find herself in a world full of strong personalities. She explores the new world and her desires while dealing with finding her parent’s bodies and travelling with her alcoholic, domineering aunt. The director, Pawlikowski, represents Ida’s inner conflict with her religious conviction and her self identity through her limited but powerful words, camera angles that focus on the bottom
Ida’s inability to assert herself stems from her always being told what to do and how to act in the convent. When Ida is confronted with the real world and her libertine aunt, she is at a loss of how to respond. She is not confident establishing herself in situations, understanding her desires, or creating her own identity. Pawlikowski shows Ida’s irrelevance to the world by filming her at the bottom of the screen. By using this camera technique, Pawlikowski allows space above Ida, which presents her as insignificant and explains her diffident personality. Moreover, Ida’s dominant aunt, Wanda, juxtaposes Ida’s reserved character. In one scene, Wanda storms up to a house and demands entry; she knows the house belongs to her family. Ida, too shy to assert herself and pursue the location of her parents’ bodies, cautiously follows her aunt but fails to find the confidence to stand next to her. Interestingly, Ida dismisses herself and walks straight to a barn, yet she looks more relaxed in the barn compared to her tense expression in the house. This demonstrates her struggle with self worth and confidence. Ida, not comfortable in the real world yet, would rather stay in a smelly barn away from humans and society than battle alongside her
Lis, a handsome trumpet boy, centers the scenes while Ida is off to the side. This shows the importance of Lis in relation to Ida’s inner conflict. Simply a Catholic girl, Ida starts off as a blank slate when she steps out of the convent, but the world slowly imprints on her, propelling her to make choices. She becomes enlightened about what her body and mind want after meeting Lis and struggles to decide if she will indulge in her yearning for him. Therefore, Lis, who is pivotal in Ida’s choice of staying true to her religion or exploring her sexuality, appears at the center of the screen to symbolize his significance. He seduces Ida, who stands in the dark, but her faith prevents her from acting. Standing in the darkness is an allegory to Ida’s lack of sexual knowledge. At this point, she is innocent and does not know if she will enjoy accepting her sensuality. Ida will forever be in the dark, in fact, until she becomes more mature and assertive. Hence, her position at the side of the screen cements her struggle with her competing morals and