Eisenberg’s ‘A Real Pain’ Explores Holocaust Legacy, Family Trauma

NEW YORK — Actor and director Jesse Eisenberg‘s latest film, “A Real Pain,” delves into the complexities of Jewish heritage, mental health, and the legacy of the Holocaust. The movie, which premiered in early 2025, follows two American cousins, played by Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin, as they embark on a Jewish heritage tour of Poland, funded by their late grandmother.

The film, which draws from Eisenberg’s own family history, explores the emotional and psychological toll of visiting Holocaust sites, including the Majdanek concentration camp. Eisenberg’s character, David, struggles with OCD, while Culkin’s Benji battles severe depression. The cousins’ journey is both a tribute to their grandmother’s past and a confrontation with their own mental health challenges.

“What is real pain?” Eisenberg asked in a recent interview. “Is my character’s manageable, medicated OCD pain valid? Is Kieran’s pain valid… [if] he’s experiencing the worst of what a psyche can experience, but at the same time he is in a comfortable life? Or is the only pain that’s valid and should be acknowledged is the pain of war, genocide, and mass trauma?”

The film’s poignant exploration of these themes earned it four Golden Globe nominations, with Culkin winning the award for Best Supporting Actor. Despite the accolades, Eisenberg acknowledged the irony of celebrating a film that deals with such heavy subject matter. “There’s some kind of irony there, and it certainly sums up probably a lot of my inner life,” he said.

One of the most challenging aspects of the production was filming at the Majdanek concentration camp. Eisenberg spent months negotiating with the authorities to secure permission to shoot on-site. “We went over every word in the script. We went over every angle that we wanted to film,” he explained. The scenes were shot simply, with no music, to honor the solemnity of the location.

Eisenberg also reflected on his own relationship with Judaism and his struggles with mental health as a child. “I cried everywhere,” he recalled. “I was kicked out of preschool… because I locked my mom in the closet because I didn’t want to be away from my mom.” Despite these challenges, Eisenberg found solace in community theater, where he felt a sense of belonging among fellow “outcasts and weirdos and artists.”

“A Real Pain” is not just a film about the past; it’s a meditation on how history shapes our present and the ways in which we grapple with pain, both personal and collective. As Eisenberg put it, “I don’t know how to reconcile those two things: Feeling bad about my very fortunate life and also understanding the horrors of my family’s past or the horrors of people around the world today.”