Writer/Director Julia von Heinz reveals the power of reconnection in her latest film, Treasure.
Synopsis: A father-daughter road trip set in 1990s Poland, Treasure follows Ruth (Dunham), an American music journalist, and her father, Edek (Fry), a charmingly stubborn Holocaust survivor, on a journey to his homeland. While Ruth is eager to make sense of her family’s past, Edek embarks on the trip with his own agenda. This emotional, funny culture clash of two New Yorkers exploring post-socialist Poland is a powerful example of how reconnecting with family and the past can be an unexpected treasure.
Written and directed by Julia, Treasure stars Lena Dunham as Ruth and Stephen Fry as Edek.
Check out our interview with Julia:
Director’s Statement:
New York writer Lily Brett was born in the DP Camp of Feldafing, just a 20-minute car drive away from my hometown in the Southern German provinces of Bavaria. Here, thousands of Polish and Hungarian Jews were brought after they had been evacuated from the death camps Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau by the US Army. It is also where Lily Brett’s parents met again after having been separated at the gates of Auschwitz.
In 1998, Lily published her first novel Just Like That in Germany, and German readers were astonished. Here was a young woman writing about the Holocaust in a prose so light and humorous, that you did not know whether to cry or laugh out loud. Over the years, Lily Brett has built up a vast readership in not only Germany but also France and the UK. The first time I read her work was when my mother gave me one of Lily’s books for my 16th birthday. She herself was, just like Lily, the daughter of a Jewish survivor and part of that “2nd generation” to which Lily had given a voice.
Our adaptation of Lily’s novel, Too Many Men, focuses on the “love story” between father and daughter, two individuals who could not be less alike. Holocaust survivor Edek Rothwax radiates strength, optimism and humanity and befriends everyone he meets. His daughter, and our female main protagonist, Ruth, however, carries with her the trauma of her parents and encounters Poland, the country of her family’s death, with anger and bitterness.
This bittersweet story is told in the light and comedic tonality of Lily’s novels without masking the deep pain our protagonists carry with them.
The year 1991, in which our film is set, directly follows a key moment in Polish history. Immediately after the Iron Curtain fell, Jews from all over the world – especially from the USA – traveled to Eastern Europe to get to the bottom of their families’ legacy. Ruth is one of them. The fact that her father imposes himself on her and accompanies her is nerve-wracking at first – until the journey finally gives her an understanding of her father that Ruth needs to truly understand herself; herself and the transgenerational trauma she carries within her.
I am overjoyed that Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry are playing Ruth and Edek Rothwax. Not only are they international stars, they also have a strong personal connection to the story: Both their families are Jewish and have their roots in Eastern Europe. Stephen has even experienced a journey similar to Ruth’s himself. Both are simply first-class actors who effortlessly combine tragedy with comedy.
Treasure is the third part of my Aftermath trilogy, which deals with the effects of the Holocaust on subsequent generations.
