2 Oscar nominations 2010

SYNOPSIS: Writer-director Michael Hoffman (SOAPDISH, RESTORATION) adapts Jay Arini’s novel into a thrilling comic-dramatic account of Leo Tolstoy’s final months. This Tolstoy, played with quiet authority by Christopher Plummer, has renounced writing fiction, built a school to educate peasants, and leads a movement whose guiding principles are abolishing private property, pacifism, and sexual chastity. His new secretary (the charming James McAvoy) becomes the comic man-in-the-middle between two formidable opponents scheming for control of his manuscripts and money. Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), a rigid true believer, wants to spread Tolstoyan doctrines around the world, a would-be Paul to the Master*s Jesus. And Sofya (Helen Mirren), Tolstoy’s wife of 48 years and the mother of his 13 children, proved her dedication by copying ‚War and Peace‘ six times… by hand!

GENRE: Drama

CAST: Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, Christopher Plummer, Paul Giamatti, Anne-Marie Duff

DIRECTOR: Michael Hoffmann

WRITER: Michael Hoffmann

PRODUCED BY: Egoli Tossell Film Halle (an Egoli Tossell Film and Zephyr Films company) (DE) in association with Pictorion Pictures (DE)

IN CO-PRODUCTION WITH: The Andrei Konchalovsky Production Center (RU), Sam Film (DE)