FEATURE FILM: “The Last Station” / Nominated for an Oscar in 2010
In January 2010 viewers around the globe were able to admire Stülpe Manor Palace in an entirely new role on the big screen: as Russian county estate Yasnaya Polyana. This is where Leo Tolstoi wrote many of his famous novels. The film boasts a fantastic cast, among which Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren feature, and examines the poet’s relationship with his wife Sofia. The film was released in Germany with the title “Ein russischer Sommer†(which translates literally as “A Russian Summerâ€). It has all the makings of a big box office hit.
This is in part also due to the romantic and dreamy setting of Stülpe Manor. Lined with ancient lime trees, this former residence of the nobility ranks among the few beauties of Brandenburg which was not given the honour of appearing in the writings of Theodor Fontane, the 19th-century novelist who catalogued so lovingly the landmarks of his native land. Even so, the estate received a footnote in his travelogue Walks through the March of Brandenburg. It refers to the time when the property was still in the possession of the noble family von Hake. The members of this family, all “good and glorious” people, as Fontane writes, “are presumably going to be survived by of one of their first ancestors, Hans von Hake, commonly known as Hans von Stülpe. This Hake von Stülpe held up the Grand Commissioner for indulgences Tetzel near Golmheide between Jüterborg and Trebbin and upon producing scornfully ‘the chit of indulgence for sins yet to be committed which he had bought from him the day before’, took all the money Tetzel had on him …”
Such a beautiful story, wrote Theodor Fontane “just as the people love it”, is “bound to live on†in the record books of Brandenburg. The writer was utterly convinced of this. Who knows, maybe it will become material for another film in which Stülpe plays the leading role.
Watch the trailer:Â The Last Station (German trailer)