Film No. 34. TREASURE .. Palace Aust. German Film Festival (2024). 5th June.

 

Film No. 34  (2023)  June 5th.  6:45 PM  PALACE Raine Sq, Cinema 3, Perth City.

"What you and your father do on this trip. It is not easy" (Warsaw local and newly found friend Karolina confides in Ruth).

NOMINEE:  Best Spanish Film (Patricia Font) Sant Jordi Awards.

Is TREASURE an inoffensive, sometimes amusing road movie depicting a father and daughter gradually unfurling a deeper love and respect for who they are and where they have come from? Yes, but more innocuous than inoffensive. 

While TREASURE plays out like a daughter's real life road adventure (Poland 1991) with a father she has never really known, this is only partially true. From the imagination of Lilly Brett (novelist), German director Julia von Heinz has created a quirky film which works in parts, but misfires in the main. Daughter Ruth (Lena Dunham) and father Edek, (Stephen Fry) grow on us as the ultimate odd couple, leading to a minor lump in the throat ending.

Brett's mother and father were holocaust (Auschwitz) survivors. Too Many Men, (the book TREASURE is loosely based on) uses aspects of  the "field trip" to Poland that Brett took with her father.  I've seen worse father/daughter road to redemption films.  8GUMS.