Parallels between 19th-century drama and recent U.S. politics exist because the film was 'true to itself,' says McAvoy.By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Josh Horowitz James McAvoy Photo: MTV News Robert Redford's "The Conspirator" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month. The film focuses on the fallout from the 1865 assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, but the political intrigue within could be seen as relevant to the current moment. In the film, fresh-faced lawyer Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) is charged with defending the assassination conspiracy's lone female defendant, Mary Surratt (Robin Wright); over the course of the trial, Aiken becomes increasingly convinced of Surratt's innocence.