Oscar-nominated film Ida has become the subject of a vociferous complaint by a Polish nationalist organisation that has accused it of being “anti-Polish” and possessing “serious flaws” of historical fact.

The Polish Anti-Defamation League (Reduta Dobrego Imienia) has launched a petition against the film, addressed to the state-funded Polish Film Institute, which backed the film, claiming that the film “fails to acknowledge the German occupation” and “that the viewer with no understanding of history may leave the film with the idea that the blame for the Holocaust lies with Poles”.

Ida, directed and co-written by Pawel Pawlikowski, is the story of a novice nun in 1960s Poland who discovers her parents were Jewish, and that they were murdered by the family that hid them from the Nazis. The petition also complains that viewers of the film might interpret the killer’s motivations as financial, whereas “for Polish viewers it is clear, it was out of terror of it being discovered by the Germans that they were hiding Jews”.

The RDI has demanded that information in the form of title cards is added to the beginning of the film, making clear that Poland was under German occupation from 1939-45 and that hiding Jews was a death-penalty offence during that period. However, the 2001 book Neighbours, by Jan Tomasz Gross, ascertained there were at least some incidents of Jews murdered by ethnic Poles. At the time of writing, over 29,000 people had signed the RDI’s petition.

The Guardian Film Show: Maps to the Stars, Ida, I Origins and The Equalizer Guardian

Accusations of historical inaccuracy against Ida have gathered momentum since its success outside Poland, and its increasing profile on the international circuit. It won the best film award at the London film festival in October 2013, and was subsequently been nominated for best foreign language film for the Golden Globes and the Academy awards.

It was released in Poland in October 2013, and went on to win best film at the Polish Eagle awards in March 2014. The RDI’s petition follows rightwing MEP Janusz Wojciechowski’s accusation in December 2014 that Ida airbrushed the Germans from the story and blamed the “primitive, dirty Polish peasant” instead. Liberal critics, on the other hand, have complained that the film perpetuates stereotypes of the “Jewish Communist” and that it “Christianises the Holocaust”.

Prominent Polish figures have, however, sprung to Ida’s defence. Historian Marcin Zaremba told wyborcza.pl: “Not every movie has to be a book about Polish history ... Ida is not offending anyone ... it does not claim Poles are responsible for the Holocaust. It is a movie about memory, about finding your own identity ... it is intelligent and important.”

Polish translation by Julian Borger and Mateusz Karpow.