Cinema as contemplation: medieval realism and spiritual silence in Ida (2013)

This article reinterprets Paweł Pawlikowski’s Ida (2013) as a form of mediated religious communication rooted in the theological and cultural tradition of medieval realism. Drawing on the ideas of Aquinas, Anselm, and Pseudo-Dionysius, it suggests that the film embodies a contemplative mode where truth, goodness, and beauty are regarded as ontological realities rather than subjective ideas. Through silence, stillness, vertical framing, and temporal restraint, Ida conveys a Catholic cultural imaginary that operates beneath explicit doctrine, influencing perception, memory, and moral values. Its formal austerity echoes apophatic theology and monastic practices such as lectio divina, serving as a non-discursive form of Catholic values. By embedding Holocaust trauma within spaces of ritual silence and architectural simplicity, Ida presents memory not as a narrative endpoint but as a mediated act of endurance. The film depicts cinema as a cultural space where religious significance endures beyond institutions, showing how Catholic sensitivities persist through aesthetic and symbolic expressions in today’s post-secular culture.