Lev Tolstoy

It's a biopic in two parts of the later life of Leo Tolstoy. Each piece is about 80 minutes long.

"Insomnia" shows an elderly Tolstoy (Sergey Gerasimov) reflecting on his life with considerable discontent. He seems stressed by all the people around him, including his wife, Sophia (Tamara Makarova, who is Gerasimov's wife). On the other hand, he gets along better with his children, especially Tatiana (Marina Ustimenko). His doctor, Dushan Makovitsky (Berivoj Navratil) is also present. Part 1, for me, was tedious and inconclusive.

The second part, "Departure," recounts his departure in his last days from the family estate, Yasnaya Polyana, in the company of his doctor. We see hints of Sophia's search for a document, though its nature is not discussed. Tolstoy and his doctor stop several times before the train station at Astapovo, once at a monastery, once at his sister's home, and he even plans to rent a room in a small village. However, his fame pursues him and the peace and quiet he desires. Tolstoy decides to travel to the isolation of the Caucasus. However, he falls ill on the train, and they need to stop at Astapovo. The frenzy over his coming death is illustrated by the busy telegraph room at the station as reporters send dispatches to their newspapers.

Something is always lost in watching a foreign-language film with subtitles, and that's the case here. Narrative coherence is sometimes challenging to follow. The film has a realistic setting and in the character of the actors not present in the star-infested case of "The Last Station" that tells some of the same stories. Technically, the Russian film is not nearly as polished, though they managed 6000 Slovakian extras for the funeral scene.

Leo Tolstoy's internal turmoil over his aristocratic background and his desire to honor every person regardless of status comes through nicely.