Berlinale Bloggers 2024
A Father-Daughter Journey, Rife with Wounds

"A wall is a wall," so says Edek (Stephen Fry) to his daughter, Ruth (Lena Dunham). But are all walls the same?

A wall may seem mundane, an inanimate object, but its significance can vary greatly. It can serve as protection against harsh winter winds or as a means to confine and segregate people.

Treasure (2024), part of the Berlinale Special programme, is set in Warsaw, in 1991. This setting marks exactly 51 years after Edek and his family, of Jewish descent, were forcibly removed from their home and confined to the Warsaw Ghetto concentration camp.

Accompanied by Edek, Ruth, a journalist from New York, embarks on a journey to her parents’ homeland to uncover her family history. Using her journalistic know-how, Ruth sets out to unearth hidden truths.

Unearthing Secrets, Digging Up Old Wounds

The pursuit of information can be invasive, particularly when an informant is reluctant to share what he or she knows. Ethical considerations must be made to not be exploitative. However, putting the informant in an uncomfortable position is sometimes unavoidable, and journalists understand this well. Ruth faces a dilemma: as a journalist, she is compelled to uncover information, yet her source is her own father, a Holocaust survivor from Poland.

At first glance, Treasure (2024) appears to be a simple narrative of a father-daughter road trip, lightly packaged with a coherent plot and straightforward three-act structure. The father is a bubbly, jocular character, who doesn’t seem to have a care in the world.

At the same time, the film still manages to address what is difficult to articulate: The experience of trauma and pain behind Edek's behaviour, which seems all fine and dandy on the surface. The start of the film makes sure that the audience understands first and foremost that the past contains old wounds. Digging them up can make them fresh and painful all over again. But, without addressing them, and tending to them with care, can people truly heal?

From the Personal to the Political

Treasure highlights the tension in the relationship between father and daughter. The audience is placed in Ruth's position of not knowing much at all. Following Ruth's perspective, we gradually learn the stories of Holocaust survivors: Stories of torture, forced labour, and loss, and a people facing the reality that nearly entire an generation was forcibly erased.

Sometimes, the film has the audience on the side of the father, revealing that unresolved trauma, impacting his own daughter, transcends generations.

Released in 2024, amidst genocides happening in the world – where entire identities are being erased and walls are built to divide humans – Treasure serves as a bitter reflection. The tension between Lena and Edek grips the audience: How can we talk about and come to terms with genocide, while being sure to stand on the side of humanity and prevent it from happening again?