TREASURE

Germany, 2024, 111 minutes, Colour.

Lena Dunham, Stephen Fry, Andre Ennicke, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Wenanty Nosul, Iowna Bielska, Maria Mamona.

Directed by Julia von Heinz.

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.” And the treasure of the title? For the middle-age woman wanting to visit her family’s homeland, appreciate her Jewish heritage and the consequences of the war and concentration camps? For the man who had survived the camps? Treasure for each of them and a quest in re-visiting Poland, the setting 1991.

Treasure is based on a novel by Lily Brett, who grew up in Melbourne, living now in the United States, but a candidate for many of the Australian literature of awards, including the Miles Franklin, and awarded an AO in 2021. In the film is dedicated to the memory of her father – and a photo of father and daughter at the final credits.

There will be a variety of responses to this journey back to Poland, the older generation with its sad memories and the reality of the Holocaust and the Jewish genocide, a younger generation wanting to understand the past better. And there is the 21^st-century audience, now decades-distanced from the events but wanting to know, understand and appreciate more.

This means that Treasure has had more effect on the wide range of audiences rather than affirmation by film critics who have been rather severe on the screenplay, the casting, the performances.

The performances are striking in their way, a difficulty being that both father and daughter are not immediately likeable difficult to identify with on this significant quest. Lena Dunham is Ruth, middle-aged, music journalist in the US, marrying her husband for his getting a green card and a divorce, the death of her mother a year earlier, a difficult relationship with her father. She is quite idiosyncratic, even carrying her breakfast cereals with her… A difficult role, but more immediate audience sympathy for her than for her father.

He is Edek, Stephen Fry, absolutely brilliant, domineering and controlling with a broad smile and flashing money to get his way, critical of his daughter and her life, casual in his approach to this journey back into the past. In fact, he rather wants to avoid going back to where he grew up in Lodz, wary of a trip to Auschwitz. But, this is Ruth’s quest and, eventually, they do go to see the family factory, now dilapidated, go back to the apartment block where the family lived, the new occupants apprehensive about being evicted, lying about the apartment being empty when they moved in, but the gradual discovery that they did have silver, crockery, coats from the past – and Ruth, desperate for mementos, bargaining to buy them.

And the visit to Auschwitz is important, the inmates not required to walk to the entry but allowed on the trolley, Edek finding the grown-over rail tracks where they disembarked, visiting the site of the hut where he lived, the workplaces.

While there are criticisms of the performance, of the relationship between Dunham and Fry on screen, of the screenplay, there is still value for a 21^st-century audience sharing this journey of memory, journey of discovery.

1. The title, the treasure for Ruth, the treasurer for her father? Recovering treasures from the past for treasures for the present?

The Polish settings, the countryside, the cities, the drab atmosphere, contrast with the luxury hotels, the old factory, the old apartment block and interiors, Auschwitz, 1991, atmosphere? The musical score?

2. The film based on actual events and characters? The photos at the end? The father-daughter relationship, memories of the war, expulsion of Jews, Auschwitz in the camps, after the war, migration to the United States, the new generation, wanting to understand something of the heritage?
3. Ruth, the casting of Lena Dunham, her screen presence, age, background, music journalist, planning the trip, accompany her father, wanting to visit Lodz where he grew up, wanting to visit Auschwitz, to see, to understand, to appreciate, to have some concrete memories? Her background, personality, green card for her husband, the divorce, her mannerisms, vegetarian, carrying the cereals…?
4. Edek, the casting of Stephen Fry, his screen presence, filling the screen? His back story, life with his parents, the expulsion from their home, his wife, the train to Auschwitz, his dislike of travelling by train, memories? His life in the camp? To America, a happy life in America, the recent death of his wife? Grief? His domineering personality, impromptu decisions, spontaneous reactions to people, controlling and deciding? Interfering in his daughter’s life?
5. The opening at the airport, Ruth and her tension, the father missing his plane, his explanations, her buying the train tickets and her careful planning, budget, his disregard, the encounter with Stefan, the taxi, hiring him for the whole trip? Stefan and his friendliness?
6. The range of hotels, the accommodation, the father and his demands, adjacent rooms, splashing the money? The range of personnel at the hotels, the responses? Tadeusz, young, speaking English, wanting the autograph, hired as translator, his interventions with the family in the apartment? The bargaining for buying the souvenirs?
7. Edek and his decision to go to the ghetto rather than to Lodz, the destruction of the ghetto, his wanting to have a wall, the photograph? Ruth and her demands, the visit to Lodz, drab, the visit to the factory site, the reaction of the young man, clearing the dirt and finding the tiles? Explanation of the manufacturing? The visit to the apartment?
8. The issue of the apartment, the new family, moving in the in 1941, saying there was nothing there, the fear of being evicted, the crowded apartment, reactions? The discussions, the lie about nothing there? Silver bowl, the crockery…? Ruth returning, with Tadeusz, discussions, the silver, the price, her not wanting to haggle, the teapot, the discovery of all the crockery, and finally the coat? Her giving the code to her father, his breaking down, memories, tears? The photo of his parents? Looking at the range of photos? His finally wearing it?
9. The visit to Auschwitz, the father and his reluctance, the arrival, the guide, Ruth saying that Auschwitz was not a museum but a death camp, revisiting the areas, her father identifying the rail tracks and their arrival, his place in the hut, work? The effect on both of them?
10. Edek and his sociability, joining in the singsong the hotel during the night? Friendship, splashing money? The contrast with Ruth, glum, her breakfasts, her suspicions? The attempt to ring her former husband and hanging up?
11. The two women, their jobs, the encounters, the conversations, flirtation? Edek his spending the night, the aftermath?
12. The culmination of the trip, memories of her mother, sometimes distance of her father growing up, not weeping at the funeral? Her grief, her motives for visiting, packing her souvenirs? The future? Reconciliation with her father?