Treasure

Julie Skálová runs a successful Michelin-starred restaurant in the center of Prague. She is single, childless, and her work at the restaurant is her whole life. Her mother tragically died twelve years ago, and since then, she has had no contact with her father, a history professor and passionate diver. She blames him for her mother’s death. Julie severed all ties with him. She only knows that he lives in Indonesia and runs some kind of resort.

One day, Julie receives a letter from her father. He is asking her for a large sum of money, insisting that he is in serious existential trouble. Julie can’t believe her eyes. She is angry and disappointed. The letter keeps her awake at night, and she can’t stop thinking about it. She finds it impossible to concentrate on anything else, which begins to negatively affect her life and the operation of the restaurant. After some time, she decides she must resolve the situation with her father once and for all and decides to travel to Bali to confront him. Determined to put an end to this chapter of her life, she hands over the management of the restaurant to her deputy, telling him she will be back in a few weeks.

Thus, she embarks on a long flight to Bali, and after many complications, she finally arrives, exhausted, at a strange hotel on the coast, owned by her father.

She finds him drunk, which doesn’t surprise her. In the neglected resort, she meets her father’s associates: Marie, Anna, and Petr. They look at Julie with suspicion and question her identity. Only Anna knows that Julie is Karel’s daughter; she knew her when she was still a child. Julie says nothing to them, waiting for her father to wake up, which will be in the morning. She is put in a horror-movie-like room where nothing works, only one light bulb is functioning, and there is no running water — like in the rest of the resort. She is disappointed, dead tired, and on the other side of the world. She is determined to leave immediately.

In the morning, her surprised and still somewhat drunk father greets her. He did not expect her visit. Julie tells him that she came to finally resolve their relationship, his disappearance after her mother’s death, and to find out why he is asking her for money after so many years of silence. Her father only wants to discuss money and is adamant about not revealing what it is needed for. He takes Julie to a dirty office where Marie and Anna are sitting with computers, maps, and diving equipment, and it seems they are researching something. Her father asks her to understand that he really cannot say more. This is the real reason he asked for the loan. Julie laughs at this. He wants money but won’t say what’s happening or what the money is for. If he doesn’t reveal the real reason, she will immediately leave for the airport and they will never see each other again. Her father implies that it is a strictly confidential matter and says no more. This is the last straw for Julie.

She runs to her room and starts packing her things. As she is leaving the resort, she encounters Petr, who begs her not to leave because she is their only hope. Julie doesn’t understand. She is exhausted and confused. She takes a moment to calm down and gather her thoughts.

In front of the restaurant, she spots two disgruntled tourists complaining about the accommodation, dirt, and poor food to a local girl named Bobo, who is in charge of her father's resort. Julie starts to understand why the whole hotel is in such a neglected state and why nothing works when one person, who probably hasn’t been paid in a long time, is responsible for everything.

Julie puts down her bags and goes to look around the resort. She sees her father and his associates arriving, preparing diving equipment. They are discussing loudly. Julie approaches discreetly, so they can’t see her, while still being able to hear their conversation. Karel is angry. The others are accusing him of not paying them for a long time, of being afraid to dive with outdated equipment, of it being dangerous, and of not being able to move forward without money. Karel is furious. He explains to them how close they are to their goal. Julie watches them, and the others notice her. Her father approaches her, questioning why she is still there and saying she shouldn’t be eavesdropping. She responds that he shouldn’t borrow money from strangers. They are even. There is silence. When her father doesn’t say anything, Julie gets up to leave, but he stops her. He begins to tell her a story. A story about a ship named María Helena, which set sail from Spain in ancient times carrying a cargo of immense value. The ship sank, and everyone agrees it was somewhere near the Indian coast. All searches have been unsuccessful so far, and no one has found the wreck. However, her father has discovered new evidence that the wreck might be where no one has ever searched before, near the shores of Lombok. He explains Admiralty law and says that once he finds the ship, he will be rich, as will everyone who helps him. He promises Julie that he will return all her money and that she will inherit everything that remains after he dies. Julie is disappointed. Her father is still the same dreamer who believes in fairy tales and is willing to spend millions on a dream that will never return. Julie tries to explain that he needs to grow up. If he took better care of the neglected resort, he could make a decent living and live in peace. She simply doesn’t believe him. Eventually, the conversation turns to Julie’s mother, and she begins to accuse her father of her death. This angers him. He starts yelling that she knows nothing, that it wasn’t like that. Julie gets angry and goes to bed. Her father asks if she will lend him money. She doesn’t answer and leaves. Julie lies in bed, unable to sleep. Her mind is racing with thoughts—past, present… She has no one else but her father. They are family. No one else.

Julie gets up early in the morning. She is tired and hasn’t slept well. She has been thinking all night. She sees her father sleeping in a hammock and rudely wakes him up.

She tells him she has decided to give him one last chance and help him, but on her terms. She will have control over all finances and demands a large share of the find. She wants to be the main partner. Her father disagrees, claiming that he has invested much more in the venture. In the end, he gives in, as he is in a tight spot. Julie tells him she wants to oversee the entire project and also manage his resort, which she is capable of reviving. Her father resists. They argue for a while about the share, and then they come to an agreement. Julie is determined. She is resolved to change everything. And she starts with the resort. She doesn’t waste time and immediately goes to her room and throws everything out—every piece of junk, the mattress, everything. She starts doing the same in the other rooms. Marie, Anna, and Petr watch her in horror, but she doesn’t care. Once she clears the rooms of the mess, she turns her attention to the restaurant and the kitchen. She recruits Bobo as her assistant, promising her a decent salary if everything works out. Agreed.

Her father and the others are busy with their maps, preparing dives, going into the water, training, and calculating. The creditors come to collect their money, and Julie pays them off. She knows that from now on, she is in charge of the finances. The resort is slowly starting to look better again; the rooms are clean and cozy, the kitchen is tidy, and the restaurant has new cutlery and dishes. In the evening, when the group returns, a meal is prepared for them. Everyone is thrilled. Julie has improved the resort. Only her father still grumbles. He is no longer the big boss. Everyone is talking only about Julie. He sees how the resort has improved and notices that guests are returning. He realizes he managed it poorly, and that admission hurts.

One day, Marie asks Julie if she would like to join them on a dive. Julie is unsettled by the question. She hasn’t dived since her mother’s death. However, Marie convinces her that she would only need help in the pool, nothing major, and if she doesn’t want to, she doesn’t have to. Julie decides to give it a try. When she surfaces and removes her mask, she sees her father and he starts shouting at full volume that he doesn’t want to lose her as well. Despite this, she defiantly dives down so he can’t see her and leaves her father fuming on the edge of the pool. Everyone is watching, but they don’t intend to intervene. Karel understands that Julie is now a grown woman with a will as strong as his own.

The next day, Anna takes Julie to the market to buy groceries and restaurant supplies, while Karel deals with the necessary permits for the dives in town. Everything must be paid for, and Julie is prepared for that. Everything runs smoothly. When they return to the resort, they see her father lying on the ground with two men standing around him, one of whom has just delivered a significant blow. Julie rushes over to see what’s happening. They are loan sharks to whom Karel owes money. Julie is angry; her father hasn’t told her the whole truth. She tries to find out what happened, but the men ignore her and leave. Her father slowly limps back to the office and refuses to talk. Julie catches up with him and eventually pries out that he borrowed a large sum of money at high interest. He promises it’s the last thing he’s kept from her, and Julie reluctantly accepts the promise. She pays off the debt for her father and hopes she won’t find any more skeletons in the closet.

The resort starts to come alive. New clients are arriving, everywhere is clean, the restaurant is functioning, and guests are satisfied. Julie is happy too. The relationship between her and her father is also beginning to warm up. Julie starts diving with the others despite her father’s disapproval and gradually learns the information they had anxiously kept from her upon her arrival. Everyone likes her, and even Karel begins to understand that without trust and communication, their relationship will go nowhere.

More and more exploratory dives take place. During one of them, they discover an old artifact underwater that suggests they might have found an ancient shipwreck. Everyone is excited. Onshore, it is confirmed that what they found belonged to the María Helena, but what they salvage from the wreck is not the treasure Karel had dreamed of all this time. They find only trinkets of little value. Everyone is disappointed. All those years, effort, time, and money... it all suddenly seems lost. The only items of real value are two wooden plaques salvaged with the chest. But neither forensic methods that Marie studied nor artificial intelligence can decipher the inscriptions on them. Julie helps as best as she can. She and her father read ancient books and notes, but everyone suspects that they are looking for information that can’t be gleaned from books. They’ll have to be hit on the nose with it. Eventually, everyone goes to bed exhausted but can’t sleep. They’re thinking. Suddenly, Julie sits up in bed and heads for the door.

Something dawns on her. When she opens the door, she finds her father standing there, just about to knock. Julie shouts at her father that the treasure is not in Bali and runs to the office. Karel chases after her. Julie grabs the book they salvaged and that Marie had left on the table to dry. "The treasure is to the northwest of the coast," Julie tells her astonished father, pointing to the Latin text.

The next morning, Julie informs everyone of the new findings. They still don’t have the exact location of the treasure. Marie shows the computer screen with scanned images of peculiar patterns engraved on the salvaged wooden plaques and tries to piece the information together. Suddenly, Julie finds a connection between things they hadn’t found. No one had seen or noticed them. She ponders for a moment and finally realizes that the treasure from the ship had been moved elsewhere, to an island near Bali that has exactly the same shape. Everyone is stunned. The next day, they set out by small fishing boat to the island. They are greeted by rugged cliffs and turquoise water. They reach the shore by boat and head along the beach in the direction Julie had calculated from the map. Suddenly, they spot a cave with a small symbol and a visible letter X engraved on it. It points to the northern tip of the island, near a peculiar cliff.

The fishing boat moves precisely to the designated spot. They know there is great depth at this location. A place that is very difficult for diving. That’s why the treasure has likely not been found yet.

They decide that despite the challenging terrain, they must investigate the spot and undertake a complicated dive. Despite her father's objections, Julie insists on joining them. She is experienced and believes she will be helpful. The dive turns out to be much more demanding than they had anticipated, and things become complicated underwater. Her father and Julie find themselves in a situation where they must decide who will surface and save their life. Her father wants to stay below so Julie can survive. He will stay with the treasure while the others make it to safety. Julie is devastated.

She returns with the others to the resort, knowing she has lost her father, who remained below the water’s surface. She knows it’s the end. The end of everything that had seemed so promising. A few days later, while sitting with Marie, Anna, and Petr on the resort’s veranda, trying to recover from what happened, a taxi arrives at the hotel and Karel steps out. Wearing a half- dressed wetsuit, a promotional t-shirt from a gas station, with diving gear in hand and a heavy backpack slung over his shoulder. No one can find their voice. He walks past them and drops the backpack on the ground, which clinks as if it contains gold bars. Everyone becomes alert.

He starts to recount how he surfaced and found the boat gone. How he was carried by the currents for a day and a half until he reached the mooring ferries and then made his way home. Julie throws herself around her father's neck.