The complete list of films submitted for this year’s Oscar for best foreign language film has been announced. Paweł Pawlikowski’s Ida is one of the favourites in this category. Ida is not a movie about the Holocaust, the culpability of the Polish people, or the Stalinist terror that marked post-war Polish history. These themes are present and extremely important, but they serve as a backdrop to the story that centres on the meeting of two very different personalities. The real focus of film is on choosing your own way of life and realising and verifying your identity. Agata Trzebuchowska, who plays the eponymous Ida, describes her experience.