Author Lily Brett was born in Germany in 1946, grew up in Australia, and now makes a home for herself in the United States.  Her works (books, essays, poems) have received acclaim, and it was her most successful novel, Too Many Men, which won a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize when first published in 1999.  Drawing from her own life, it was the fictionalised tale of a middle-aged woman from Melbourne who took her aging Jewish father to Poland for the first time in four decades after surviving the Holocaust.

Brett’s novel is the source material for the re-titled Treasure, a cinematic adaptation directed and co-written by German Julia von Heinz (And Tomorrow the Entire World).  It features a largely unknown cast apart from the two leads.  Emmy nominee Lena Dunham (Girls) steps into the shoes of Ruth, a 36-year-old journalist travelling to Poland to learn about her family history and craft an article worthy of publication.  BAFTA nominee Stephen Fry (Gosford Park) plays Edek, her elderly father who accompanies his daughter on the trip and provides insight on his own Polish upbringing.

Set in 1991, Treasure is structured as a dark comedy, but the dramatic elements are more pronounced than the comedic ones.  Accompanied by their jack-of-all-trades taxi driver (Zamachowski), the pair visit Edek’s dilapidated childhood home from half-a-century ago and discover family heirlooms (a tea set, a silver bowl) they’d left behind after fleeing the Nazis.  They also visit the “museum” in Auschwitz where Ruth sees the camp building her father was detained in.  It triggers a flood of repressed memories which leaves you wondering if the trip is a help or a hindrance to Edek’s attitude and psyche.

The film’s most interesting layer is a more traditional one – an exploration of the relationship between father and daughter.  Edek is a “glass half full” guy who loves interacting with others and focuses on the positives of his current life.  Ruth is a “glass half empty” person who pours herself into work and is struggling to find a sustained sense of happiness.  The pair argue about trivial details at first, but things get more heated when Edek makes inferences about her failed marriage, and Ruth pushes for more information about her dad’s mental scars.

It’s repetitive in places and not all subplots add value (like Edek’s interaction with two Polish females at his hotel) but the thought-provoking interactions between Dunham and Fry make the film work as a whole.  Fry’s accent is a hammy but it’s still great to watch their respective characters as they push each other’s buttons.  They each get a chance to display likeability, vulnerability, and nastiness.

Selected to play out of competition at the Berlin Film Festival back in February, Treasure is worth a look-see.