A long title for a gently inquisitive film, as a ten-year-old girl comes to terms with life, death and trust. Ida Who Sang So Badly Even the Dead Rose Up and Joined Her in Song has its UK premiere at the Raindance Film Festival from 25th June.
Ida (Lana Marić) is ten years old and lives in rural Yugoslavia (in the area now called Slovenia) with her mother (Judita Franković Brdar), father (Matej Puc) and grandmother. One day, grandma (Milena Stropnik) collapses, and Ida becomes convinced that the angelic voices she heard singing on the wind that day are the only things keeping her grandmother alive. Despite the bullying of her classmates, and the fact that she can’t carry a tune in a bucket, Ida decides to join the school choir to save her grandmother.
Ida Who Sang So Badly Even the Dead Rose Up and Joined Her in Song follows Ida as she comes to terms with growing up. She is at that point in life where she discovers that even the adults she trusts (or should trust) most are imperfect human beings. Where – even in 1970s socialist Yugoslavia – she experiences the devotion that some people around her have to religion. And where she learns that death is an intrinsic part of living.
Generally a solitary child, Ida’s world initially lies between school and home, until her mother takes her on a journey away from home and she encounters many new people, who perhaps occupy a liminal space between life and death. There is no mystery about events; Ida sees what she sees, speaks to those she chooses, and seems to return home with a different attitude towards life and death. The narrative is divided into three chapters – ‘Wind’, ‘Tempest’ and ‘River’, highlighting how important a role nature plays in Ida’s life.
Ida Who Sang So Badly … is a slow-paced, emotionally tranquil film, and a strong debut feature from writer/directorEster Ivakič. It has a touch of magical realism without being quirky, and the ten-year-old in us all will empathise with Ida’s struggle to make sense of the world.