Lena Dunham and Mandy Patinkin to star in drama about Jewish heritage

Girls actress Lena Dunham and Homeland star Mandy Patinkin are set to star in Iron Box, a film about a New York businesswoman and  her ageing father, who return to his native Poland to explore their Jewish roots.

German film-maker Julia von Heinz is in the director’s chair for the emotionally riveting drama, which is an adaptation of Australian writer Lily Brett’s bestselling novel, Too Many Men.

Iron Box is part of a trilogy of films by von Heinz exploring the legacy of Germany’s Nazi past. Her first, Hanna’s Journey (2013), focuses on the Holocaust trauma felt by the third generation, while her second, And Tomorrow The Entire World, due to air on Netflix this year, looks at the emergence of neo-Nazis and the Antifa movement.

Dunham told Variety: “Julia’s film struck a deep chord in me, both because of its radicalism and its core value of empathy. I knew I wanted to go wherever she was taking me, and the fact that she’s taking me further into an exploration of what it means to be Jewish and the stories we carry forward as daughters of trauma is deeply moving to me. Mandy Patinkin is, of course, the icing on the genius cake.”