Saratoga Jewish Community Arts, with a generous grant from the Jewish Federation of Northeastern NY and sponsored by Temple Sinai, opens its fall season on September 10, 2023 at 7 PM with a Zoom panel discussion of the film Ida, a 2015 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film. Directed and co-written by Pawel Pawlikowski, who was born in Poland and grew up in Great Britain, his film is a return to the sights, sounds, and memories of his childhood.

Set in 1962 Communist Poland, it takes us to a convent still appearing as if in the Middle Ages where we meet Anna, an 18-year-old orphan raised in the convent.  Anna, whose name was originally Ida Lebenstein, is about to take her vows when the Mother Superior insists that first she meet her one known relative, a former state prosecutor for the Communist party. This revelation triggers a journey in which aunt and niece drive back to the village of Anna’s parents to discover how they died and where they are buried.

The film, full of guilt and pain, addresses three big issues in modern Polish history – the power of the Roman Catholic Church, the conflicted legacy of Communism, and the collective guilt of the Holocaust without appearing as a scholarly lecture.

While receiving widespread acclaim for its writing, cinematography, and penetration into the dark underside of Polish history, the film tries to reckon with the crimes of Stalinism and the Holocaust. It is correspondingly criticized by Polish nationalists for its perspective on Christian-Jewish relations in Poland and, as well, for perpetuating stereotypes about Polish Jews as collaborators with the post-war regime.  “This drama is not simple, rather quite complex, an emotional odyssey and perhaps could be called a compact work of art”, says Phyllis Wang, Coordinator of SJCA.

The Zoom panel discussion of Ida will be held on September 10 at 7 PM. Registration is required at sjca.sjcf@gmail.com   The film is available for viewing on Amazon Prime and Hoopla and potentially through libraries or other sites.

www.saratogajewishculturalfestival.org      www.saratogasinai.org