Treasure

Synopsis

Ruth Rothwax is a successful music journalist from New York. Like so many children of Holocaust survivors, it is hard for Ruth to feel joyful.

Ruth’s father Edek, a vigorous man of sixty-three, has mastered the art of hiding his pain under a happy mask. One can only assume it is how he survived his time in Auschwitz.

Together, Ruth and Edek spend one week in Poland, where they are ultimately forced to confront their family’s troubled past. It is Edek’s first trip back to his hometown of Lodz, where he grew up in a wealthy family, before they were forced into the ghetto.

Edek has always been reluctant to talk about his past and seeks any distraction that enables him to prevent such. As her father embarks on an affair, Ruth attempts to understand the tragic history of her parents. Along the way, she finds herself determined to reclaim the few surviving possessions of Edek’s childhood home.

While the trip often veers on the side of catastrophe, Ruth and Edek learn important lessons and strengthen their unique bond. The two ultimately leave the family’s homeland of Poland with a newfound wisdom and with their family’s little remaining possessions.

About the Director

Julia von Heinz is one of Germany’s most acclaimed directors. She won numerous awards and played at festivals worldwide. Her debut NOTHING ELSE MATTERS premiered at Berlinale 2007 and won a German Film Award in 2009. Her most recent feature AND TOMORROW THE ENTIRE WORLD premiered in Official Competition at Venice International Film Festival 2020 and was nominated for the German Film Award as Best Film. Her event series ELDORADO KADEWE was a streaming hit for Germany’s biggest public broadcaster ARD.

Von Heinz earned her Ph.D at Film University Konrad Wolf Babelsberg, and she teaches film directing at University of Film and Television Munich. In 2018, she co-founded the production company Seven Elephants, together with the German directors David Wnendt and Erik Schmitt as well as the producer Fabian Gasmia.

Artistic Statement

Lily Brett was born 1946 in the German DP camp Feldafing. Her parents had married in the Lodz Ghetto before being split up by the German occupying army. When they reunited in 1946, they were the only survivors of their Polish-Jewish families.

Lily published her first novel in 1990. Here was a young woman writing about the horrors her families endured in such a light-hearted way that one never knew if to cry or laugh out loud. Her first book I read was a present by my mother–herself the daughter of a Jewish Survivor.

At its very core, TREASURE is the story of a father and a daughter who could not be more different. Edek and Ruth’s one-week journey through Poland will change their lives completely. At its end, they will have helped each other to overcome their family trauma. They will have healed.

Festivals, Screenings, & Awards

Berlin International Film Festival (2024, World Premiere)

Tribeca Film Festival (2024)

Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival (2024)