Lena Dunham has often explored the ennui of younger generations, satirically juxtaposed with their elders. This often exists at the intersection of class or gender difference, as well; it’s something we’ve seen to great effect in her early classic, Tiny Furniture, and her hit show, Girls. She now finds herself exemplifying that theme in the new film Treasure, where she plays a music journalist traveling post-Soviet Poland after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her father (an immaculate Stephen Fry) tags along on this tour of their ancestral home, from where they’ve been exiled ever since the Nazis’ invasion and subsequent Communist takeover. They each have very different reactions.

“It’s really interesting to me,” said Dunham of the generational difference on display in Treasure. The father has first-hand knowledge of the horrors that took place in Poland during World War II; the daughter has only experienced it through books and art, and wants to know more. The father is protective, quietly sabotaging her trip, wanting to spare her the knowledge he has carried like a burden. Treasure is thus a fascinating look at how different generations react to trauma and atrocity, an emotionally warm film contrasted by the cold, gray Soviet aesthetic.

“I think it’s something I’ve often explored in relationships in my own work with women, how women deal with feminism, how women deal with trauma, how women have dealt with painful attention around their sexuality, and the difference between maybe first wave, second wave, third wave feminists, how they were in dialogue with each other,” explained Dunham, who added:

“But what I really loved was that this was a father-daughter story, and what I related to deeply is —
I was that maddening kid who was constantly trying to demand that my parents kind of share more than maybe they were comfortable with
. It didn’t occur to me as a kid that maybe the reason that they weren’t talking about things was because they were painful, or they had their own story about them.”

Related: Lena Dunham Praises Treasure Co-Star Stephen Fry

Lena Dunham on That Moment When You Realize Your Parent Is Human
Treasure (2024) 3.5/5 Treasure, directed by Julia von Heinz, stars Lena Dunham as Ruth, an American music journalist, and Stephen Fry as her father Edek, a Holocaust survivor. Set in 1990, the film follows Ruth and Edek as they travel through Poland, visiting his childhood haunts.Release Date June 14, 2024 Director Julia von Heinz Runtime 1h 52m Writers John Quester , Julia von Heinz Studio(s) Seven Elephants Distributor(s) Bleecker Street Expand

“My thing was, like, give me the information, guys. I feel like that obsessive desire to constantly know the truth and have it named is a big part of being a writer, and is what I related to Ruth most on, and what I related to the author of the book that the film is based on, Lily Brett. She and I really shared that,” continued Dunham. She continued:

“And I felt Stephen captured really well
that feeling when you’re a kid and your parents don’t share something with you
, you feel like it’s being withheld from you, like there’s a secret that everybody knows but you don’t. And
it’s about that moment you realize that your parent is a human, and they have their own pain, and they have their own story
. For some, that moment comes early; I think, for me, it came pathetically late.”

“So I really related to Ruth,” added Dunham. “And I think Stephen and I talked a lot about that dynamic in our own families. Like, he’s British, and I’m married to an Englishman, and there’s a different relationship to exposing your inner life in England, where things that might be considered honest in America might be considered a little bit ‘much’ in England. So we were always in dialogue about the subject of the film.” She shared an anecdote about Stephen Fry that touches on this theme:

“I remember one day we were in the middle of shooting, and we got along like a house of fire, and I said, ‘I’m going to pee, I’ll be right back.’ And he went, ‘You don’t have to tell me what you’re doing in there.’ And I felt like that perfectly encapsulated the relationship between the characters and us. He said it with total love, but from then on I just said, ‘I’m going to the little girls’ room.”

You can see the perfect pairing of Dunham and Fry when Treasure hits theaters June 14 from Bleecker Street. Watch the trailer below: