Berlinale 2024: Lena Dunham Goes on a Trip to Poland in ‘Treasure’

Berlinale 2024: Lena Dunham Goes on a Trip to Poland in ‘Prize’

by Alex BillingtonFebruary 18, 2024

There’s yet one more fascinating collection of twin movies in 2024 – 2 movies that are incredibly comparable in a lot of means although they’re totally independent, unconnected manufacturings. The initial movie premiered at the 2024 Sundance Movie Event in January labelled An Actual Discomfort, created, guided by, and starring Jesse Eisenberg, and it won the Screenwriting Honor at that celebration (right here’s my complete testimonial). The 2nd movie is premiering currently at the 2024 Berlin Movie Event in February labelled Prize, guided by German filmmaker Julia von Heinz, and starring stars Stephen Fry & &Lena Dunham as dad & little girl. Both movies include Americans taking a trip to Poland, flying right into Warsaw, where they launch a “heritage” trip scenic tour around Poland to discover an old home where a person they recognize when lived in years ago prior to running awayPoland Both likewise include frustrating personalities, jokes concerning vacationers seeing Poland, and journeys to a Jewish graveyard along with a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp. They’re both so comparable it’s difficult to not speak about both, although this testimonial is meant to have to do with Prize, I should contrast them as tales concerning comparable motifs.

Prize is based on a real tale, based on a real trip a female and her daddy took, and their experiences taking a trip to Poland after the Iron Drape boiled down. An Actual Discomfort, nonetheless, is not based on a real tale yet it is motivated by Jesse Eisenberg’s very own family members and his experiences. His movie is sort of the contrary – the production of his movie became his actual variation of returning to Poland, as your house they go to and movie at is the real residence his grandma lived in years back. In Prize, the tale’s core has to do with a male that in fact went to and endured Auschwitz, and while he does not desire to collect the past, his little girl does therefore she takes him to Poland to see where his life was invested throughout that (painful) time. Both movies have a extra serious, peaceful, simple personality attempting to recognize Poland’s past, following to a extra frustrating, loud, bold personality that appears both interested in and withdrawn in Poland’s past. It’s a complicated vibrant – An Actual Discomfort manages it much better, specifically due to the fact that Kieran Culkin’s personality is in fact charming, whereas Stephen Fry’s personality is simply ordinary irritating & & grating, in spite of the effort to make him a adorable old Polish man.

While I’m not Jewish and do not have a Holocaust link like individuals in these movies, I do have Polish origins and I do really feel a linkto Poland Nevertheless, my link to these movies is restricted due to the fact that I do not have a wish to check out Poland on a heritage trip or to discover a link to the Jewish Poland that existed pre-World Battle II. It is a crucial tale to inform, certainly, and it is an interesting subject to take into consideration concerning their sorrow and discomfort and link to a awful past, nonetheless it is something that I assumed to have actually currently been resolved in the virtually 80 years given that WWII finished and the camps were freed. Why exist 2 brand-new movies concerning this specific very same tale showing up in 2024? Both were in manufacturing prior to the Palestine-Israel occasions in 2023. Eisenberg’s movie, in between them, efforts to address this much heavier motif in a extra smart method by linking the discomforts of modern-day offspring of Jewish Poles, with the severe discomfort and unhappiness of their past. There is an unbelievable speech that Eisenberg’s personality David provides in that movie at a supper that dives right into this specific subject, whereas there is a never ever a meaningful minute of representation similar to this in Prize. It never ever appropriately takes a look at and emulates these engaging generational distinctions.

Maybe among the essential reasons Eisenberg’s movie An Actual Discomfort stands apart is that it is far more individual tale, authentically informed as the filmmaker’s very own actual tale with his very own feelings and sensations and worries shared with the personalities and the filmmaking options. Prize, on the various other hand, is not Julia von Heinz’s very own tale, she is a supervisor informing a tale that originates from one more individual. And while she does her ideal to properly bring this tale to the display, recording the feelings and sensations of her personalities, the credibility does not beam through, it really feels far more performative and noticeable than Eisenberg’s production. This is most obvious in the 4 protagonist (2 from each movie), and just how various they are to watch in each movie, in spite of a lot of resemblances. The most significant distinction is, certainly, Stephen Fry’s Edek, that is a real Jewish Post that endured the Holocaust, making his return to Poland that far more mentally functioned. Nonetheless, Fry is a British star, that had to discover Polish and put on a hefty accent to execute this duty. While his Polish goes over, the efficiency really feels a little off, and not as wholesome as essential.

As high as I should contrast these 2 movies for being so comparable, they do each have various discourse to supply customers. Prize is far more concerning the discomfort of entering the past, and just how difficult it is for one to do that; at the same time the future generation seems like the only method they can completely recognize their family members is to enter the past. Does she come to recognize her dad much better hereafter trip? The movie really did not persuade me of this, yet maybe in the real world she did. An Actual Discomfort is far more concerning just how these modern-day generation 30-somethings really feel concerning that past, and just how they might have not endured the Holocaust yet likewise have their very own distinct discomforts and has a hard time today too. My most significant grievance with both movies is just how badly they stand for Polish individuals. In An Actual Discomfort, they just ever before communicate with Polish individuals one or two times, for hardly a min or 2. In Prize, a lot of the Polish individuals they communicate with discovered as questionable, sly, or unusually bothersome individuals. While it might have been a nuanced monitoring in real tale it’s based on, it discovers as supercilious in this movie, as if no Poles post-WWII (with the exception of a entrance hall young boy that assists convert and their cabby) are excellent individuals. Having actually gone to Poland several times, I can claim this is simply not real.

Alex’s Berlinale 2024 Ranking: 6 out of 10 Comply With Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing/ Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

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