Treasure
National treasures unite in a not unhumorous tale of family and the Holocaust.
Stephen Fry and Lena Dunham
This is a film by the German director Julia von Heinz which is set in Poland in 1991 but which is for the most part acted in English and which may attract audiences drawn to it by its two leading players. While Lena Dunham’s fame largely flows from her TV hit series Girls, Stephen Fry is a popular personality in his own right and known for his books as well as for his acting skills. These two may make for an unusual pairing but Treasure is a project that is patently meaningful to both of them with Dunham also involved as a producer and Fry taking on the extra task of learning to speak from time to time in Polish. The need for that arises from the fact that Fry is playing the role of Edek Rothwax a Polish Jew who as a youngster had survived internment in the Auschwitz concentration camp but has subsequently lived in America. Dunham’s role is that of Edek’s daughter, Ruth, now in her mid-thirties and someone for whom America has always been home. But, in spite of that, she is eager to embrace her family roots and we meet her in Poland as she steps off a plane from New York. Her father is accompanying her in a protective spirit – she does not speak Polish – although their respective attitudes to this trip could hardly be more different.
Indeed, the story that is told here, based on the 1999 novel Too Many Men by Lily Brett, has it its centre the opposing viewpoints of Ruth and Edek. Ruth feels that it is important for her to face up to the family history, a subject that has been avoided, and to acknowledge this as relevant to the person that she is. That her mother had died a year earlier and that her marriage has just ended in divorce are doubtless factors contributing to her need to sort herself out. In contrast, Edek has chosen to live as a survivor and to erase the painful memories of his early life as far as possible. Having reached Warsaw with his daughter who had made out an itinerary for their visit, he tries even now to put off reaching Łódź where he had lived and is in two minds about accompanying her to the concentration camp itself once they have arrived in Kraków.
This conflict of outlook including Edek’s determination to travel by car and not by train (he takes it on himself to hire a taxi driver (Zbigniew Zamachowski) prepared to drive them throughout) puts the two of them at odds with each other and, because their differences sometimes have their comic side, Treasure has been described by some as a mix of comedy and drama. But the real intention of the film is to set up a work readily accessible and of popular appeal which, while avoiding the very grim nature of the most intense films about the Holocaust, will nevertheless bring home its reality and its lasting impact on survivors to an audience who might usually avoid this subject-matter. I feel that that is a worthwhile endeavour although quite a number of critics either disagree or feel that Treasure has failed in its aim.
Truth to tell I was ultimately left with mixed feelings about this film. On its chosen level, a good deal of it works well even if Ruth’s situation, involving as it does an eating disorder and a tendency to self-harm, would have gained from further elaboration. But then in the later stages of the film and following on from an effective scene at the concentration camp itself one is left feeling that there are times when the film is decidedly ill-judged. Further tension between father and daughter due to a passing affectionate sexual liaison between Edek and a business woman (Iwona Bielska) lacks conviction. Furthermore, introducing this seems an inappropriate diversion in this context while the closer bond that finally grow father and daughter needs to be more detailed if its presentation is not to make for a rather glib conclusion. But, if these aspects are questionable, the evocation of the 1990s is well handled and the film’s leisurely pace is apt given a narrative that makes use of the appeal of its leading performers. The fact that both Dunham and Fry were born of Jewish mothers is surely part and parcel of their evident commitment to this material. Dunham’s contribution reflects that spirit, but the performance that stands out here is that by Stephen Fry even if he neglects to supply any American accent for this long-time New Yorker. His portrayal of Edek finds the actor getting right into the skin of the character and I regard Treasure as a film that contains some of the best work that he has yet done for cinema.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Lena Dunham, Stephen Fry, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Wenanty Nosal, Tomasz Wlosok, Iwona Bielska, Maria Mamona, David Krzysteczko, Robert Beata, Oliver Ewy, Klara Bielawka, Magdalena Celówna.
Dir Julia von Heinz, Pro Fabian Gasmia, Julia von Heinz and Lena Dunham, Screenplay Julia von Heinz and John Quester, from the novel Too Many Men by Lily Brett, Ph Daniela Knapp, Pro Des Marcel Slawinski and Katarzyna Sobanska, Ed Sandie Bompar, Music Antoni Komasa Lazarkiewicz and Mary Komasa, Costumes Malgorzata Karpiuk, Sound Pascal Villard.
Seven Elephants/Bleecker Street Media/Lava Films/Good Thing Going/Haïku Films-FilmNation/BST.
112 mins. Germany/France. 2024. UK & US Rel: 14 June 2024. Cert. 12A.
