An Optimistic Tragedy

As the communist revolt progresses in Russia, a female commissar is dispatched to some anarchist sailors to get them on board the party bandwagon. Her arrival is met with skepticism and an attack by an aspiring rapist. She shoots the man in self defense and begins to form the sailors into a cohesive fighting unit. Joining the unit for a mission, the sailors are all murdered before they can convert to communism. The fallen angel is held up as a symbolic heroine to the people's cause in this decidedly propaganda-drenched film. The film took a specially created prize at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival, somewhat to the consternation of critics who failed to observe its merits.