Berlinale 2024 | Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry connect with their Jewish heritage in ‘Treasure’

Stephen Fry and Lena Dunham play a convincing father and daughter in German director Julia von Heinz’ first English-language movie ‘Treasure’

Stephen Fry and Lena Dunham play a convincing father and daughter in German director Julia von Heinz’ first English-language movie, “Treasure." Set in post-communist Poland, the comedy-drama had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival over the weekend.

Dunham joked in an interview that when she sent her mother a photo after her first read-through with Fry, her mother replied, “I think we now know who your real father is.”

Dunham said she was full of nerves meeting Fry: “Meeting your heroes is a complicated thing, and it turned out to be better than I could have dreamed."

The film shows the pair on a road trip to Poland to retrace family history. Fry plays Holocaust survivor Edek, who reluctantly accompanies his daughter Ruth, a New York journalist. He confronts painful memories and shares parts of his past that he had kept buried for years.

The story is based on Lily Brett’s book “Too Many Men.”

Fry learned Polish for the role. Both actors said they connected with their Jewish heritage.

“When I read the script, I could hear my grandfather’s voice, and it became more so the further we got in,” Fry said. “It never occurred to me growing up that there could be an opportunity to re-investigate the story in that kind of way.”