THE LAST STATION
A cold easterly blast swept across the steppes of Mayfair as Dame Helen Mirren and her co-stars arrived at the Curzon cinema on Tuesday 26th January for the UK Premiere of THE LAST STATION, Michael Hoffman’s film about the latter years of Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian novelist, played by Christopher Plummer. James McAvoy and his newly-pregnant wife Anne-Marie Duff attended with their fellow cast members Patrick Kennedy and John Sessions. Director Michael Hoffman and the author of the novel on which the film is based, Jay Parini, joined the actors in introducing the film to an eager audience.
THE LAST STATION is set during the last year of the life and turbulent marriage of the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) and his wife the Countess Sofya (Helen Mirren).
Tolstoy, having rejected his title and embraced an ascetic lifestyle, finds himself increasingly at odds with Sofya. As his devoted disciple Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti) urges him to sign a new will leaving the rights to his work to the Russian people rather than his family, the conflict between husband and wife grows to breaking point. The whole affair is witnessed by Tolstoy’s new secretary, Valentin Bulgakov (James McAvoy), whose burgeoning love for the beautiful and feisty Masha (Kerry Condon) is set against the waning love between Tolstoy and Sofya.
A man at war within and without, Tolstoy, in his final days, makes a run for peace on a train with his physician, his daughter (Anne-Marie Duff) and Bulgakov. Sofya and Chertkov follow, but, too ill to continue, Tolstoy stops at the tiny railway station at Astapovo. While hundreds camp outside awaiting hourly reports, it is here, at a remote railway junction, that Leo Tolstoy finds the peace he has been searching for.
THE LAST STATION is released by Optimum Releasing and will open in the UK on February 19th, 2010
Photo by Jo Davidson
Photo by Yui Mok
Photo by Yui Mok
Photo by Ash Knotek
Photo by Ash Knotek