Stromboli

The story of a woman who marries into an island. Karin is a Lithuanian woman held in a displaced persons camp after the war. The only way out is marriage. She marries an Italian fisherman she has been talking to through the wire and goes to his home. His home is Stromboli: a closed island of stone houses at the foot of an active volcano. Karin does not fit there at all. She does not speak the language, will not accept how the women live, and the neighbours shut her out. Her husband does not understand her either. The two best-known sections were shot like documentary: the tuna fishing the islanders actually do, and the evacuation of the village during an eruption. Real islanders appear in both. The narrative offers no solution. Karin tries to get away and the only direction open to her is up the mountain. Ingrid Bergman plays Karin. Roberto Rossellini directed. During the shoot the relationship between director and actress became a major scandal, and that overshadowed the film's reception for a long time. An important production for anyone who likes Italian neorealism and hard character studies. For a viewer expecting a dramatic resolution, the film explains almost nothing and its ending is open to argument.