Lena Dunham stars alongside Stephen Fry in the father-daughter road trip film Treasure, in theaters now.
Set in 1990s Poland, Dunham plays American music journalist Ruth, who travels with her Holocaust survivor father Edek, played by Fry, on a journey through his homeland.
The pair spoke to ABC Audio about the personal connection they had to the story and why it was important to them to be a part of the film.
“This is the kind of film that I would have been so proud to be able to share with my grandmother,” Dunham said. “I am so proud to be able to share it with my aunts and with my great aunt, and with the people in my family who are living and who are still processing this kind of trauma.”
After reading the script, Dunham felt the story was not only deeply about being Jewish, but also deeply about being human. “I think the best stories are both personal and universal,” Dunham said.
Fry agreed, saying, “The characters leapt off the page, and I just knew who Edek was. [He was] so like my grandfather in some ways, but there were surprises in him, too. And it moved me just to read it.”
Overall, Dunham said they were interested in showing how transgenerational trauma plays out in Holocaust stories, “no matter their religious or ethnic background.”
“When families have been the victims of violence and persecution, that does not stop when the violence stops, that doesn’t even stop with the person that the violence occurred with. It continues,” Dunham said. “It was really amazing to be part of something that looked at all of that, but also did it with a measure of humor and joy, because all families contain equal measures [of] pain and joy.”
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