Emma D'Arcy, star of HBO's 'House of the Dragon,' has been cast as the lead in 'Last Train Home,' a magical realist short film about dying from director Jessi Gutch. The project draws from Gutch's personal experience with incurable ovarian cancer and explores death as a multifaceted human experience. Production is currently seeking financing with a budget of £72,000.
Emma D'Arcy will portray Eve in 'Last Train Home,' a U.K. short film directed by Jessi Gutch. The story follows Eve as she reconnects with a childhood friend positioned between the living and the dead, alternating between a hospice bed and a steam train filled with ghosts. Makers describe it as a 'coming-of-death' narrative, aiming to depict dying as an extended process rather than a single moment.
Gutch's project stems from her 2019 diagnosis of ovarian cancer at age 27, which had spread to her liver and spleen. She underwent chemotherapy alongside terminally ill patients and faced an incurable recurrence during the 2020 lockdown. This inspired her earlier semi-autobiographical short 'The Forgotten C,' directed by Molly Manning Walker and nominated for a BIFA award. Gutch has since explored spiritual aspects of death, including deathbed visions, without relying on religious frameworks. The film took shape during a residency at Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, a remote coastal site once home to artist Derek Jarman, influencing its visual and thematic elements.
Donna McKevitt, a Jarman collaborator who contributed to his album 'Translucence' and film 'Blue,' is composing the score. The film is co-produced by Cat Marshall of Commonplace Films and Victoria Emslie of Primetime under Last Train Home Ltd. It has fiscal sponsorship from Breaking Through the Lens, supporting gender equality in film.
The creative team includes casting director Shaheen Baig ('Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man'), cinematographer Nathalie Pitters (BAFTA Breakthrough 2025 honoree), production designer Lucie Red, editor Nse Asuquo, and sound designer Ines Adriana. Shoshana Ungerleider, M.D., executive producer of Oscar-nominated documentaries 'End Game' and 'Extremis,' is on board. Molinare provides post-production support, and Panavision supplies cameras.
To address industry challenges, the production commits to 7+1 hour shoot days and End of Life Doula U.K. support for cast and crew, responding to mental health pressures noted in a Film & TV Charity survey. Gutch stated, 'Cinema almost entirely avoids the dying process, reducing it to a final gasp or an act of bloody violence. But death is layered, messy, frightening, beautiful and often profoundly connective. This film exists because I’ve lived inside that space, and because so few stories allow us to stay there.' Emslie added, ''Last Train Home' is not just a film, it is an invitation into the freedom that comes from remembering how to live through accepting one’s mortality.' Marshall noted the project's aim to challenge perceptions of death and industry norms. Ungerleider said, 'Projects like 'Last Train Home' open a space we rarely allow ourselves to enter,' inviting curiosity and humanity toward dying.
Breaking Through the Lens CEO Daphne Schmon called it 'brave, values-led filmmaking' with Gutch's 'rare tenderness and honesty.' The film follows Gutch's documentary 'Blue Has No Borders,' which premiered at Sheffield DocFest 2025, and her developing feature 'My Cells Are Trying to Kill Me' with the BFI. It won The Pitch Fund’s Best Drama Prize and was a finalist in other funds.
