In this faithful and compelling adaptation of Anton Chekhov s timeless classic, director Laurence Olivier demonstrates the same facility for cinematic expression that made his filmed versions of Hamlet and Richard III so definitive.

In Olivier s assuredly brisk, graceful, meticulous, and witty rendering of Chekhov s masterpiece, the sisters (Joan Plowright, Louise Pernell, Jeannie Watts) are doomed to remain in their provincial purgatory, nearly a thousand miles away from their beloved Moscow. Intoxicated by yesterday s triumphs and heedless of tomorrow s disasters, the three sisters are left to sift through the debris of their shattered dreams on the eve of the social and political upheaval that will transform Russia forever.