Is Treasure based on a true story?
Coming to theatres on 14 June 2024 is Treasure, a new movie starring Lena Dunham as an American journalist named Ruth who travels to Poland with her father Edek (Stephen Fry) to visit the places of his childhood.
However, Edek, a Holocaust survivor, is hesitant to confront his past.
Here’s the official synopsis for the movie:
“A father-daughter road trip set in 1990s Poland, TREASURE follows Ruth (Dunham), an American music journalist, and her father, Edek (Fry), a charmingly stubborn Holocaust survivor, on a journey to his homeland. While Ruth is eager to make sense of her family’s past, Edek embarks on the trip with his own agenda. This emotional, funny culture clash of two New Yorkers exploring post-socialist Poland is a powerful example of how reconnecting with family and the past can be an unexpected treasure.”
The movie is worth seeing, especially if you’re interested in learning more about the experiences of those who survived the Holocaust. But while that terrible time in history existed, you might be curious to know if the father-daughter story in the movie is based on fact.
Here’s what we know:
Is Treasure based on a true story?
According to Firstshowing. net, Treasure is based on a real-life trip to Poland taken by a woman and her father just after the Iron Curtain came down.
We don’t know the identity of these people. But the book on which the movie is based, Too Many Men by Lily Brett, is believed to be based on the true story of a Holocaust survivor and his daughter and their trip to the places of his past.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the movie’s director, Julia von Heinz, talked about Lily Brett and the author’s personal experience of the Holocaust.
She said:
“Lily Brett was born in Bavaria. She was born in a camp for displaced persons that Jewish survivors from Auschwitz had been force-marched to. Her parents, miraculously, both survived Auschwitz in different parts of the camp, and then they found each other again at this camp in Bavaria. Really a miracle. They left Germany for Australia, where Lily started to write books in the late 1980s.”
Brett’s novel may be based on people she knew or it could be connected to her own personal experiences. We don’t know much more at present.
But whatever the case, for those who have experienced the Holocaust first-hand or listened to tales from family members who have, the movie will resonate on a personal level, making it a true story for many, even if parts of the movie’s story have been fabricated.
Will you be watching Treasure? If you have seen the movie, what do you think of its story? Let us know in the comments below.