1. About the Director The director Pawel Pawlikowski is a Polish-British who was born in 1957 in a family of intellectuals in Poland during the Stalinist rule. Although his mother came from a traditional Catholic family, her attitude towards religious beliefs was not extreme. His father was a spiritually free person and did not believe in religion, so he was able to grow up in a secular environment. Pawlikowski later slowly discovered that his father was actually a Jew, and found in some family documents that his grandmother had died in Auschwitz. He was a little surprised, because his father had never told him these things directly, and even deliberately concealed them. His father is a respected doctor. He is very kind and considerate. He will not be self-compassionate or sentimental when he encounters anything. He never wants to look like a victim in his life. This family history is one of the reasons why the director made this movie, and I think his father's philosophy of life may have partially influenced the director, making him adopt such a calm and unremarkable style in this movie. At the age of 14, the director's parents divorced and left communist Poland. He was taken to the UK by his mother and stepfather. At first he thought he was just coming for a vacation. He was quite excited, but soon discovered that he could no longer go back, and he hadn't even come yet to say goodbye to others. He didn't speak English and felt like a fool at the time. He was forcibly separated from his childhood in his hometown, where his friends, new girlfriends, and familiar courtyards were forcibly cut off. This change had a considerable impact on him. Therefore, shooting Ida is, to a certain extent, his attempt to restore the Poland he had in his childhood, and to re-evoke the sounds and images of his childhood, the faces in his memory, and his growth environment. What's interesting is that the director's parents divorced one after another after they remarried, and finally met again in a foreign country, and the sparks of love were once again collided. After their remarriage, the two lived in Munich until their death. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the director returned to Poland with his parents' coffins and buried them in the family cemetery. 2. About Ida In the film Ida is a trainee nun from a Jewish family. Both parents died in the Holocaust. The setting of the script comes from the story of a Polish priest that Pawlikowski learned about eight years ago (2007). This priest, like Ida, survived World War II as a child, was raised in a monastery, and became a priest after growing up. When he was in his 30s, he discovered the fact that he was a Jew and became interested in his Jewish background, and tried to blend his Christian identity and Jewish bloodliness. He should still be working hard now. The director thought this case was very interesting and was a good starting point for writing the story, so he began to conceive the movie on this basis. Another interesting fact about Ida is that Ida’s actor Agata Trzebuchowska is not a professional actor and has never learned to act. She was discovered by a friend of Pawlikowski accidentally in a cafe. During the preparation of the film, Pawlikowski thought that the role of Ida was so peculiar and unusual, so after 4 months of searching, he still found nothing. During this time he interviewed about 400 young actresses or drama students, none of them met his requirements. The film is about to start, and some anxious directors ask his friends in Warsaw to continue searching for him. Then one day, when he was in Paris, a friend sent him a message saying that there was a girl sitting opposite him reading in the cafe, which seemed a bit interesting. The director hurriedly asked a friend to secretly take a photo. From the photo, the girl is not like a nun at all. She is wearing fashionable clothes and cool makeup, like a hippie, but she does have a special temperament. The director contacted the girl and asked her to remove her makeup after meeting. She was surprised to find that she was actually very suitable for acting as Ida. Especially after the two people started talking, he learned that this girl is a very interesting, strong and down-to-earth person, she is Ida. Even better, the girl didn't want to act, and didn't want to be an actor at all. The reason she came to see the director was because she liked the director's movie, "Summer Love." This film had a great influence on her in her teenage years, and she agreed to meet up when she was curious about the director. So in fact, Pawlikowski had to try to persuade her to play this play. Under his strong request, the girl agreed to talk to Agata who played Wanda Kulesza auditioned for a few scenes together. During the audition, Pawlikowski discovered that she was actually a very quiet girl, and this was very good, more in line with Ida's role. The two suddenly became friends, and she gradually realized that this film was not the kind of industrial assembly line film that was casually shot, but a very interesting filming process in which she could participate, and she was attracted to decide to star in it. Dedicated a wonderful performance. 3. About Wanda Aunt Wanda's character prototype also comes from the director's real experience. Pawlikowski University majored in literature and philosophy, and then studied German literature as a graduate student at Oxford University. In the early 1980s, he met a very attractive old lady at Oxford University. She was the wife of a professor at Wolfson College. She was about 70 years old. Because there were not many people who could speak Polish in Oxford at that time, she was old. The couple occasionally invited him to their house for dinner and tea. Gradually, they became good friends, and the director liked the old lady very much because she was very enthusiastic, funny, sharp and insightful. However, ten years later, the director was surprised to hear on BBC News that the Polish government was requesting the extradition of this lady for crimes against humanity, because in the early 1950s she was the state prosecutor of the Stalinist government, and organized and controlled the lasting target of innocent people. The people’s pre-conviction and trial, this old lady is the inspiration for Wanda's character. 4. With regard to photography, the film was shot in black and white, and the proportions of the composition are very characteristic. This is related to Pawlikowski's own preferences. He likes old black and white movies, especially the Czech New Wave movies in the early French New Wave. These movies are all black and white, usually in a 4:3 ratio. The Poland in his memory is black and white, and the few family albums he carries with him are also black and white, with strange formats and proportions. For the director, these albums have a melancholic beauty. The content of the photos is relatively simple. Two people, a dog, a lamp, a car in the distance, etc., are a kind of more empty and pure world, in this world People here will not be under the camera all the time like people are now. The photographic composition of this film also reflects a similar aesthetic point of view. Mainly translated from an interview with the director by NPR fresh air: About Wanda Aunt Wanda's character prototype also comes from the director's real experience. Pawlikowski University majored in literature and philosophy, and then studied German literature as a graduate student at Oxford University. In the early 1980s, he met a very attractive old lady at Oxford University. She was the wife of a professor at Wolfson College. She was about 70 years old. Because there were not many people who could speak Polish in Oxford at that time, she was old. The couple occasionally invited him to their house for dinner and tea. Gradually, they became good friends, and the director liked the old lady very much because she was very enthusiastic, funny, sharp and insightful. However, ten years later, the director was surprised to hear on BBC News that the Polish government was requesting the extradition of this lady for crimes against humanity, because in the early 1950s she was the state prosecutor of the Stalinist government, and organized and controlled the lasting target of innocent people. The people’s pre-conviction and trial, this old lady is the inspiration for Wanda's character. 4. With regard to photography, the film was shot in black and white, and the proportions of the composition are very characteristic. This is related to Pawlikowski's own preferences. He likes old black and white movies, especially the Czech New Wave movies in the early French New Wave. These movies are all black and white, usually in a 4:3 ratio. The Poland in his memory is black and white, and the few family albums he carries with him are also black and white, with strange formats and proportions. For the director, these albums have a melancholic beauty. The content of the photos is relatively simple. Two people, a dog, a lamp, a car in the distance, etc., are a kind of more empty and pure world, in this world People here will not be under the camera all the time like people are now. The photographic composition of this film also reflects a similar aesthetic point of view. Mainly translated from an interview with the director by NPR fresh air: About Wanda Aunt Wanda's character prototype also comes from the director's real experience. Pawlikowski University majored in literature and philosophy, and then studied German literature as a graduate student at Oxford University. In the early 1980s, he met a very attractive old lady at Oxford University. She was the wife of a professor at Wolfson College. She was about 70 years old. Because there were not many people who could speak Polish in Oxford at that time, she was old. The couple occasionally invited him to their house for dinner and tea. Gradually, they became good friends, and the director liked the old lady very much because she was very enthusiastic, funny, sharp and insightful. However, ten years later, the director was surprised to hear on BBC News that the Polish government was requesting the extradition of this lady for crimes against humanity, because in the early 1950s she was the state prosecutor of the Stalinist government, and organized and controlled the lasting target of innocent people. The people’s pre-conviction and trial, this old lady is the inspiration for Wanda's character. 4. With regard to photography, the film was shot in black and white, and the proportions of the composition are very characteristic. This is related to Pawlikowski's own preferences. He likes old black and white movies, especially the Czech New Wave movies in the early French New Wave. These movies are all black and white, usually in a 4:3 ratio. The Poland in his memory is black and white, and the few family albums he carries with him are also black and white, with strange formats and proportions. For the director, these albums have a melancholic beauty. The content of the photos is relatively simple. Two people, a dog, a lamp, a car in the distance, etc., are a kind of more empty and pure world, in this world People here will not be under the camera all the time like people are now. The photographic composition of this film also reflects a similar aesthetic point of view. Mainly translated from an interview with the director by NPR fresh air: Regarding the photography, the film was shot in black and white, and the proportions of the composition are very characteristic. This is related to Pawlikowski's own preferences. He likes old black and white movies, especially the Czech New Wave movies in the early French New Wave. These movies are all black and white, usually in a 4:3 ratio. The Poland in his memory is black and white, and the few family albums he carries with him are also black and white, with strange formats and proportions. For the director, these albums have a melancholic beauty. The content of the photos is relatively simple. Two people, a dog, a lamp, a car in the distance, etc., are a kind of more empty and pure world, in this world People here will not be under the camera all the time like people are now. The photographic composition of this film also reflects a similar aesthetic point of view. Mainly translated from an interview with the director by NPR fresh air:http://www.npr.org/2015/02/12/385742784/ida-director-made-film-to-recover-the-poland-of-his-childhood
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